4 ms·

I'm wondering if this is going to be the start of a lower cost tier, or perhaps raising the price to watch without ads? I don't think Apple could get away with

by mholm 4y ago

I'm wondering if this is going to be the start of a lower cost tier, or perhaps raising the price to watch without ads? I don't think Apple could get away with normal ads on Apple TV without an option to get rid of them, even if it's a light touch.

dave78 4y ago
I feel like it's inevitable now that all streaming services are going to add an ad-based tier. Initially it will just be a cheaper option and you'll still be able to pay for an ad-free experience, but I am concerned that eventually the ad-free option will go away. It probably depends on how much money the services can make from advertising per subscriber per month - but it seems plausible that ads could be worth more per subscription to the streaming services than the $10ish dollars a month most of them charge.
- Abekkus 4y ago
  The sad thing that sticks in my head is that, if you’re the person who could afford the higher tier ad-free experience, you’re also worth more to the advertisers than people who can’t afford ad-free. so if ad-based free tiers are profitable at all, then they are going to be more profitable than the paid subscriptions, and ad-free options will go away.
  - ridgered4 4y ago
    pavlov suggests companies now just sell the high value ad-free users data so they can be targeted by ads elsewhere in their lives while the source service remains (technically) ad free, which makes a sickening amount of sense.
- Someone1234 4y ago
  See, I think they'll creep ads into the "adless" tier, and it will become a "less ads" tier in reality. Paramount+ already does this with their "adless" tier, it has ads. Unskippable ads.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    Ideally, that would qualify for action from FTC or whatever government agency is responsible for businesses advertising one thing and selling another.
    - Someone1234 4y ago
      They'll just call it the "Ad Light" tier then.
      - lotsofpulp 4y ago
        That is fine. Ads on an “adless” tier is fraud.
hexo 4y ago
Lower cost tier and Apple? Nope. Just normal (very high) cost and maybe much highier cost. IMHO
- AyyWS 4y ago
  iPhone SE, iPad, and the MacBook Air all disagree with you. I feel like this is the cheapest Apple products have ever been. My grandma had a colorful $2000 Apple laptop in early 2000s and you can get a MacBook Air now for $1000. That's a heck of a price decline without figuring inflation.
  - account-5 4y ago
    I wouldn't call any of those low cost. Only relative to other Apple products might they be considered "cheaper".
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    Chromebooks start around $150, and perform well at around $400 and are perfect for the grandma use-case
    - AyyWS 4y ago
      I wasn't very clear. She had a mac laptop around 1998 or so.
      - squeaky-clean 4y ago
        I meant it in response to "you can get a MacBook Air now for $1000". It is the cheapest of the Apple laptops but it's not a particularly cheap laptop.
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      I was pretty surprised at how shit ChromeOS' accessibility features are, when my elderly dad got one, considering their market is basically young kids and old people.
philistine 4y ago
They've done a ton of free content already, like Baseball or Jon Stewart and if I had to bet they're rushing to put ads on all the free access they're giving. Whether or not we'll see an ad-supported tier depends on how popular their other hobbled tiers are. The Apple Music paid tier but only with access through Siri comes to mind.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
neilv 4y ago
That has precedent (including with YouTube and Kindles), and I always assume that the platform owner did the math. But it's interesting to me because I'd guess that the people with disposable income and willing to spend it on luxuries (including not seeing ads)... would be among the most valuable targets of consumer product/service advertisers.
- pavlov 4y ago
  That's why the streaming platform can sell those users' data at a premium to a platform like Facebook. When the platform does reach that user with an ad placement somewhere else, that spot is valuable.
JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
My girlfriend just canceled her Hulu last night because they just raised the rates on even the ad-supported tier.
jsonne 4y ago
This is inevitable for basically every media service whether its streaming music like Spotify, connected tv like Hulu, etc. You'll have a premium tier with no ads, perhaps a less ads but still some ads semi premium tier, and then an ads supported tier that is either free + ads or some small fee + ads. I know it's verboten to say this on Hacker News but it plays out this way over and over because some % of the consumers (read most of them) are actually okay with the trade off of having ads to pay less or pay not at all. This is even more pronounced outside the US where some markets are 99% ad supported. People should have the choice to pay for an ad free experience but its also okay for others to choose an ad supported one too.
- codalan 4y ago
  The issue is when there is no ad-free tier. Cable TV started out ad-free. The content was paid for by subscribers. But that wasn't enough. Now cable TV is just as ad-ridden as broadcast TV. Even Spotify will randomly shove an ad in my face when all I want to do is navigate to my playlist, and I'm a paying subscriber. I hate the way it interrupts my flow so much that I'm probably going to cancel them in the next month or so.

by mholm 4y ago

dave78 4y ago

I feel like it's inevitable now that all streaming services are going to add an ad-based tier. Initially it will just be a cheaper option and you'll still be able to pay for an ad-free experience, but I am concerned that eventually the ad-free option will go away. It probably depends on how much money the services can make from advertising per subscriber per month - but it seems plausible that ads could be worth more per subscription to the streaming services than the $10ish dollars a month most of them charge.

Abekkus 4y ago
The sad thing that sticks in my head is that, if you’re the person who could afford the higher tier ad-free experience, you’re also worth more to the advertisers than people who can’t afford ad-free. so if ad-based free tiers are profitable at all, then they are going to be more profitable than the paid subscriptions, and ad-free options will go away.
- ridgered4 4y ago
  pavlov suggests companies now just sell the high value ad-free users data so they can be targeted by ads elsewhere in their lives while the source service remains (technically) ad free, which makes a sickening amount of sense.
Someone1234 4y ago
See, I think they'll creep ads into the "adless" tier, and it will become a "less ads" tier in reality. Paramount+ already does this with their "adless" tier, it has ads. Unskippable ads.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Ideally, that would qualify for action from FTC or whatever government agency is responsible for businesses advertising one thing and selling another.
  - Someone1234 4y ago
    They'll just call it the "Ad Light" tier then.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      That is fine. Ads on an “adless” tier is fraud.

hexo 4y ago

Lower cost tier and Apple? Nope. Just normal (very high) cost and maybe much highier cost. IMHO

AyyWS 4y ago
iPhone SE, iPad, and the MacBook Air all disagree with you. I feel like this is the cheapest Apple products have ever been. My grandma had a colorful $2000 Apple laptop in early 2000s and you can get a MacBook Air now for $1000. That's a heck of a price decline without figuring inflation.
- account-5 4y ago
  I wouldn't call any of those low cost. Only relative to other Apple products might they be considered "cheaper".
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  Chromebooks start around $150, and perform well at around $400 and are perfect for the grandma use-case
  - AyyWS 4y ago
    I wasn't very clear. She had a mac laptop around 1998 or so.
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      I meant it in response to "you can get a MacBook Air now for $1000". It is the cheapest of the Apple laptops but it's not a particularly cheap laptop.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    I was pretty surprised at how shit ChromeOS' accessibility features are, when my elderly dad got one, considering their market is basically young kids and old people.

philistine 4y ago

They've done a ton of free content already, like Baseball or Jon Stewart and if I had to bet they're rushing to put ads on all the free access they're giving. Whether or not we'll see an ad-supported tier depends on how popular their other hobbled tiers are. The Apple Music paid tier but only with access through Siri comes to mind.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

neilv 4y ago

That has precedent (including with YouTube and Kindles), and I always assume that the platform owner did the math. But it's interesting to me because I'd guess that the people with disposable income and willing to spend it on luxuries (including not seeing ads)... would be among the most valuable targets of consumer product/service advertisers.

pavlov 4y ago
That's why the streaming platform can sell those users' data at a premium to a platform like Facebook. When the platform does reach that user with an ad placement somewhere else, that spot is valuable.

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago

My girlfriend just canceled her Hulu last night because they just raised the rates on even the ad-supported tier.

jsonne 4y ago

This is inevitable for basically every media service whether its streaming music like Spotify, connected tv like Hulu, etc. You'll have a premium tier with no ads, perhaps a less ads but still some ads semi premium tier, and then an ads supported tier that is either free + ads or some small fee + ads. I know it's verboten to say this on Hacker News but it plays out this way over and over because some % of the consumers (read most of them) are actually okay with the trade off of having ads to pay less or pay not at all. This is even more pronounced outside the US where some markets are 99% ad supported. People should have the choice to pay for an ad free experience but its also okay for others to choose an ad supported one too.

codalan 4y ago
The issue is when there is no ad-free tier. Cable TV started out ad-free. The content was paid for by subscribers. But that wasn't enough. Now cable TV is just as ad-ridden as broadcast TV. Even Spotify will randomly shove an ad in my face when all I want to do is navigate to my playlist, and I'm a paying subscriber. I hate the way it interrupts my flow so much that I'm probably going to cancel them in the next month or so.