Apple TV has officially dropped the “Plus” from its name. In a recent appearance on The Town podcast with Matt Belloni, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, explained that the decision was made internally and reflected how people already refer to the streaming service. The change, Cue said, was simply about timing and identity.
When Apple launched its streaming platform in 2019, the “Plus” was added to mirror other paid services such as iCloud Plus and News Plus. It was a way to separate free features from premium ones. Over time, however, that distinction became unnecessary. “We just decided,” Cue said. “We all called it Apple TV, and we said, given where we are today, it’s a great time to do it, so let’s just do it.” The rebrand marks a moment where Apple sees its streaming service as fully established, no longer needing the extra label to explain what it is.
The shift, though, brings back an old branding puzzle. Apple now has the Apple TV streaming service, the Apple TV app, and the Apple TV 4K device. Cue does not think this overlap will confuse consumers. “Our hardware is called Apple TV 4K for your TV. I think that’s fine, and the app is called Apple TV. It’s been called Apple TV on our third-party products as well, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem at all.”
Still, many users find it amusingly circular. You can now watch Apple TV content inside the Apple TV app on an Apple TV device. The uniform naming makes everything feel more cohesive, but it also blurs boundaries that once separated Apple’s products and services. The simplification, however, reflects Apple’s preference for consistency and tight integration across its ecosystem.
Cue also discussed Apple TV’s approach to live sports. He said the company wants to handle sports rights differently, preferring to control an entire experience rather than acquiring scattered packages. The Major League Soccer partnership remains Apple’s key example of this strategy. “MLS is closer to what we wanted to do, which is we’d like to own a sport end-to-end so that we can offer customers what we do today,” Cue said. That approach separates Apple from competitors like Netflix and YouTube, which are currently experimenting with smaller rights deals.
For Apple, dropping the “Plus” is less a rebrand and more a declaration of confidence. The service has matured into one of Apple’s core entertainment products, and its name now reflects that. Whether the simplicity clears confusion or creates more of it, the message is unmistakable: Apple TV has arrived at a point where it no longer needs a symbol to define what it already is.
Check out the full podcast episode here.
1 comment