By Jason Snell
August 22, 2025 4:54 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Moltz is where now?
Wait, Moltz is on vacation this week? Who allowed that? Dan, did you give Moltz the go-ahead?
Great, Dan’s not even answering. I know, it’s long past Miller Time on a Friday in Boston, but you never know.
Oh well. At least I can give people a reminder of what they’re losing this week, unless they happen to catch a glimpse of Moltz as he drives across the country. I hear he and the Macalope are doing a buddy comedy road trip. When they get to Chicago, watch out.
Apple TV+ subscription price increasing to $12.99 per month from today
In the streaming business, the ugliest word is churn. (That’s because in the streaming business, the FCC is not involved, so all the other bad words are allowed! And possibly encouraged!) Churn is a nice, but weird, way of referring to the people who cancel a service in a given time period. (Some new people also come in, along with the people going out. Is that how churning butter works? I grew up on a ranch. Our cows didn’t get milked.)
So what does this price increase have to do with churn? Everything. Apple’s made it much more expensive to get a monthly TV+ subscription, but the cost of an annual plan and AppleOne subscription have remained unchanged. This is a little like the Golden Gate Bridge (hey, it’s the bridge closest to my house), which charges locals a dollar less than the people who are just passing through.
Some reports suggest that Apple’s got the biggest churn in the streaming biz. Maybe this price hike will encourage more people to sign up for a whole year at a time, or get in Apple’s bundle, which has now increased in value.
And I know what you’re saying: Apple TV+ is not worth $13 a month. Maybe, maybe not. But have you seen what the other services are charging for their ad-free subscriptions these days? (Your terrifying thought for the day: It’s almost inevitable that Apple will put ads on TV+ eventually. And raising this price gives them more room underneath for a cheaper, ad-filled plan.)
MSNBC is becoming My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW).
I’m old enough to remember when MSNBC was a joint venture of Microsoft/MSN and NBC. The NBC has to come out, because NBC is spinning all of its cable channels into something called Versant. But the MS… somehow remains? That’s Microsoft for you, it’s like a horror movie monster, it just can’t be killed. (It just shows the Blue Screen of Death and reboots.)
As for that MS NOW logo… uh… even Microsoft has better taste than that.
Report: Apple out on MLB rights
Kendall Baker of Yahoo says Apple’s Friday Night Baseball is about to enter its final month on action, as NBC (not MS NOW!) is scooping up those rights. Goodbye, angry social media posts from fans who don’t know where Apple TV+ is on the dial.
But it’s okay—Apple’s probably buying U.S. rights to Formula 1. Since so many F1 races seem to be run in the middle of the night U.S. time, this is good news—I won’t be awake to see those complaints.
Come back, Moltz! All is forgiven! This job’s harder than it looks!
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