Apple TV+ is now available Android. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg News, who is usually right about these things, initially reported the news. It was later confirmed by Apple. As he suggested, the MLS Season Pass will also become available on the rival platform to iOS.
It’s fair to see this kind of move is something of a rarity. As Gurman noted, there is an Apple Music app for Android, but Apple is generally pretty obsessive about keeping customers within its own ecosystem.
The arrival of Apple TV+ on Android follows the streaming service becoming available via Amazon’s Prime Video channels functionality last year, with no reciprocal arrangement put in place. It started in the US and when it rolled out in the UK and elsewhere in December, Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services commented:
Viewers in the US have been loving the ability to subscribe to Apple TV+ on Prime Video and we’re pleased to now launch this offering in Australia, Canada and the UK. We want to make Apple TV+ and its award-winning library of series and films from the world’s greatest storytellers available to as many people as possible.
That last sentence is very revealing. It’s quite clear that, despite having high-quality programming and movies, the streamer is just not doing the numbers, despite now being over four years old.
Apple TV+ Now Available Everywhere
Initially, it was easy to dismiss the relative lack of take-up of TV+. Apple isn’t exactly worried about money and its hits do get attention and accolades. However, a lot of good stuff available on the service remains undiscovered and is, presumably, not generating much cash for Cupertino. While it can easily fund things over the short term, Apple can’t tolerate that kind of situation in the long term. It has to get eyeballs in front of its content, and that means making it widely accessible.
I’m fairly confident that rolling out on rival platforms was not part of the original Apple TV+ strategy. Putting its movies in cinemas? Sure. Android app? No chance. Francois Godard, Senior Media and Telecoms Analyst at Enders Analysis, told me:
I think Apple has been shifting the Apple TV+ strategy away from whatever synergy they were hoping for previously (with hardware sales, with subscription services), towards a narrower focus on profitability.
He also highlighted the “distribution deals in Europe with Canal+ in 2023, with Comcast and Amazon last year, with TIM announced recently.”
Godard noted how the price of Apple TV+ has increased and that the service “is already accessible on non-Apple personal computers.” He believes that “going for Android is just one more step towards blanket availability.”
It’s the next stage of Apple trying to prove that TV+ is more than just “the one with Ted Lasso on”.
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