Dear Apple TV+, I won't cancel after price hike – but one issue needs fixing

Apple TV+ is the best streaming service available right now. There, I said it. It's hugely under-appreciated – and, in my view, remains far better value than many competitors.

So for the service to impose a price hike isn't exactly a huge surprise. Sure, nobody likes increasing costs, but in Apple TV+'s case I still think it's worth the cover price – and I certainly won't be cancelling.

For background: on 21 August 2025, Apple TV+ increased its per-month fee from £8.99 to £9.99; in the USA it jumped from $9.99 to $12.99. There's no 'hack' or workaround here, as the price change was imposed with immediate effect.

A word on ads

Take a look at the broader map of streaming services, however, which quickly focuses a lens on how much poorer some offerings have become for customers. Amazon Prime Video, for example, added adverts in early 2024 – and has hugely increased their serving volume in recent months.

Apple TV+ doesn't do adverts. I'd rather pay the extra quid and skip that whole hurdle. Not that there's yet a suggestion Apple plans to introduce adverts to its service. Amazon Prime wants an extra £/$2.99 per month to swerve the ads – something I refuse to pay (and which has actively decreased my use of its service).

Netflix and Disney+ offer a banded approach to their platforms: you can pay less for lower quality with ads; or you can pay more for higher quality without ads. The top-tier Netflix package, however, is £18.99 / $24.99 per month – around double that of Apple TV+, even after its price change.

All of which quickly adds up. I recently wrote about how streaming services have a major problem that I'm not sure can be fixed – accumulative costs and too far-reaching numbers of services. Choice is great, sure, but corporates slicing up their cake – Amazon, Paramount+, MGM+ – quickly becomes a barrier and consumers have to make a decision about what to cut.

One issue still needs fixing

That highlights the quality of Apple TV+ to me: after watching Silo, Severance, Slow Horses, Stick, Murderbot, and many more, I've spent far more time invested in Apple's original programming in 2025 than on any other platform.

And with sensible investment and foresight – Apple's bold message with Silo is foresight that Netflix should learn from – I trust the service to do the right thing more than others (Netflix cancelled Kaos, for example, which I still think is unforgivable).

There's still one niggle that gets to me, though: Apple TV+ doesn't deliver consistent quality from all sources, with the company's own physical products (i.e. an Apple TV 4K box) said to get a better source. I've previously written about how Silo's dark scenes lack the expected quality, even when watching during my testing of the best OLED TVs.

Now that Apple has bumped its monthly price up, I feel that we viewers should expect more. It was only last week that I wrote praise of Netflix for offering the best streaming quality by far – something that Apple, Amazon, et al, need to address.

I'd pay even more for an 'Apple TV+ Premium' or equivalent service, because the quality of original programming – and movies, come to think of it (Wolfs, anyone?) – is more consistent than anywhere else. That must be lauded. But it seems that complacency has crept in with regards to streaming quality – and that's the one issue that Apple still needs to address.