Key Points
- The Apple TV Plus (Apple TV+) app is being rechristened to Apple TV.
- The brand refresh was first noted in a press release for the film “F1: The Movie,” which will stream on Apple TV in December.
- Apple will now offer three distinct products with the name Apple TV: A streaming service, a content aggregation and marketplace app and connected TV hardware.
Apple is inching forward with its brand refresh for the streaming service formerly known as Apple TV Plus by introducing a new name and icon with the next update of its smartphone operating system.
The California-based tech company is pushing through a new update of its iOS phone software, called iOS 26.1, that will rechristen the Apple TV Plus (Apple TV+) streaming service as, simply, “Apple TV.”
The service will live within the Apple TV app on phones, tablets and computers, offering access to Apple’s original films and series like “Severance,” “Ted Lasso,” “Silo” and “The Studio” along with films like “Greyhound” and, as of next month, “F1: The Movie.”
It isn’t clear why Apple decided to rebrand its streaming service as Apple TV, given that the name is already used for its streaming aggregation platform/marketplace and its consumer streaming hardware. The decision was first revealed last month, in an announcement touting F1: The Movie’s upcoming distribution on the app.
Competing services like Roku use similar branding across their apps — The Roku Channel, for instance, is a marketplace for third-party streaming services and a hub for Roku’s free, ad-supported streaming TV channels and on-demand content — but others, like Amazon, offer a clear delineation between their streaming apps, hardware and marketplaces (Amazon’s streaming app is Prime Video, its marketplace is Prime Video Channels and its hardware is Fire TV).
In an interview last month, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue downplayed the notion that consumers will be confused by a single brand existing across three distinct products.
“Our hardware is called Apple TV 4K for your TV; I think that’s fine,” Cue said. “he 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.”
When asked what motivated Apple to make the change now, Cue said: “We just decided.”
Apple doesn’t offer specific insight into how many people are paying for or using the Apple TV service, instead choosing to roll its financials into its broader subscription-based business, which also includes Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness and the bundle Apple One.
During its most-recent financial earnings period, Apple said its services generated nearly $29 billion in revenue, up 15 percent compared to last year.
