We have some new insight into Apple’s muddled rebrand of Apple TV Plus to Apple TV, courtesy of an interview with the company’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue. Speaking on The Town podcast, Cue said that no consultants were involved, and that it was a collective decision to drop the “Plus” from the streaming service because everyone was already calling it Apple TV.
The Plus was included in the original name because that’s what Apple uses to distinguish the paid versions of its free services, such as iCloud Plus and News Plus. “We stayed consistent because of it, but 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,” said Cue.
Cue also brushed off concerns that the rebrand might create confusion between the streaming service, Apple TV hardware, and the Apple TV app. “Our hardware is called Apple TV 4K for your TV. I think that’s fine, and the app is called Apple TV,” Cue said. “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.”