Apple Taking a ‘Slow-Roll’ Approach to Marketing Apple TV+: NYT

Apple is taking a “slow-roll” approach to marketing its new streaming service.

A new report from The New York Times says spending data shows that the brand-new streaming service Apple TV+ is not the tech giant’s top priority in terms of marketing.

According to the report, data from iSpot.tv from the last two months shows Apple spent significantly more on iPhone advertising compared to Apple TV+:

In October, Apple spent $19.9 million on television commercials for Apple TV Plus, the streaming service that went live Friday with a slate of shows featuring Reese Witherspoon, Jason Momoa and Oprah Winfrey. That same month, according to the measurement company iSpot.TV, Apple spent $38.6 million on television ads to market the iPhone.

The same disparity was evident in September, when Apple spent $14.9 million on commercials promoting Apple TV Plus and $28.6 million on television ads for the iPhone, according to iSpot.TV.

Apple applied the same spending strategy to the online push. In October, there were 139 unique digital ads for Apple TV Plus, which cost the company less than $1.7 million, while iPhones were featured in 245 separate ads, which cost an estimated $2.3 million, according to the advertising analytics platform Pathmatics. In September, there was an exception. Digital ads for Apple TV Plus that month cost Apple an estimated $3.8 million, compared with $2.4 million for iPhone ads.

“The marketing is never going to be at the level of iPhone — that continues to be the Rock of Gibraltar for Apple,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. “Services like streaming are more like the fuel in the growth engine.”

The idea that Apple would spend more on marketing the iPhone, which makes up around half its overall revenue, versus Apple TV+ isn’t much of a shocker. Estimates of Apple TV+ revenue place it at around $9 billion USD a year by 2025, while last year alone the iPhone brought in some $218 billion USD. By that measure, Apple is overspending on Apple TV+ on a dollar-by-dollar comparison.

Apple TV+ launched on Friday, November 1st and costs Canadian users $5.99 CAD/month, with a free seven-day trial to start.