Apple TV+ with ads may become a thing in the UK too

There might be an upcoming ad-supported Apple TV+ plan, at least judging by signs such as Apple hiring advertising executives earlier in the year. Now, a new report from The Telegraph shows that Apple has held meetings with a large UK rating body to discuss options for tracking advertising.

According to the report, Apple executives have met with the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (BARB) to discuss data collection required for advertising. BARB is already keeping track of how much time viewers spend watching Apple TV+ content. A lot of Apple's competitors in the field like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon are already working with the UK's rating body. So, this pretty much indicates Apple has something up its sleeve regarding advertising and Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ was first introduced in 2019, costing $4,99 a month (no ads). Over the years, users have seen a couple of price hikes - in 2022, Apple TV+'s subscription cost $6.99, and then in late 2023, it grew to $9.99. Rumors now suggest the ad-supported plan could launch closer to that $4.99 at which the service was initially available.

These ad-supported plans are now becoming popular. Netflix and Disney both have them and launched them in 2022, and Amazon Prime Video recently became ad-supported by default, with Prime members having to pay an extra $2.99 a month to enjoy streaming ad-free (a somewhat sneaky way to introduce a price hike, if I may add).

Apple has been hiring ad executives this year. Based on all of that, we can somewhat expect an ad-supported TV+ plan in the near future. This could help Apple gain more subscribers that will be attracted to a lower starting price. Although I personally don't like ads, I'm all for giving people options, so the fact that Apple may be working on providing a cheaper way to stream movies and TV shows is a great thing in my book.