Apple TV has a slightly unusual problem for a streaming service: It has some of the best TV on television, but not much else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Apple has spent the past few years building one of the strongest original-programming libraries in streaming. “Severance,” “The Morning Show,” “Ted Lasso,” “Slow Horses” and “The Studio” have helped make Apple TV a legitimate destination for prestige television. But try to use it as your only streaming service and the limitations become obvious.
There are relatively few movies and older shows compared with competitors, and the service’s live TV offerings are limited. Still, Apple has one major advantage: It knows what it wants to be. Apple TV isn’t trying to be Netflix. It’s trying to be the place where you go for a handful of very good shows — and increasingly, a handful of live sports, too.
Tom’s Guide’s streaming team is constantly watching the latest movies and TV shows. That means we’re also constantly using and evaluating the streaming services those movies and shows live on. To make it easier to figure out which services are actually worth your money, we’ve put together report cards for the biggest streaming services in the U.S., grading each across the categories that matter most: price, library, original content, interface and live programming.
So, without further ado, let’s see how Apple’s streaming service stacks up — and whether its excellent originals can make up for everything it lacks.
Apple TV: Pricing
Apple TV is refreshingly simple when it comes to pricing. For the past year it’s been $12.99 a month, with no ad-supported tier and no confusing menu of plans. However, Apple has just raised the price to $14.99, which will likely impact our value grade in next year’s survey.
You get access to Apple’s entire library of original shows and movies, along with its growing slate of live sports. You can also share the subscription with your Family Sharing group, which makes the effective cost considerably lower if you’re already in an Apple-heavy household.
Apple also makes it easy to bundle Apple TV with its other services through Apple One. Depending on which bundle you choose, you can combine Apple TV with services such as Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud+.
Apple TV isn’t the cheapest streamer around. But unlike some competitors, you get the full service with no ads for one relatively reasonable monthly fee.
Apple TV: Library
Here’s where things get dicey: Apple TV has a library problem. Unlike Netflix, Hulu or HBO Max, Apple doesn’t have decades of television and movies sitting around waiting to be streamed. Apple TV’s catalog is almost entirely made up of Apple originals, which means there’s a lot of quality but comparatively little stuff.
This is a service where the average quality of the library is unusually high, but the quantity is unusually low.
Apple has made some moves to beef things up, particularly with licensed movies (like “The Martian,” pictured above) and kids’ programming, but it still doesn’t come close to the depth of the major general-interest streamers. There’s no equivalent of Peacock’s “The Office” or Bravo library, Netflix’s endless supply of movies and reality TV, or HBO Max’s decades of HBO programming.
This is a service where the average quality of the library is unusually high, but the quantity is unusually low. That’s a perfectly reasonable strategy if you’re looking for great television. It’s much less appealing if you want a service you can endlessly browse.
Apple TV: Originals
Apple TV has quietly assembled one of the most impressive collections of original television in streaming. “Severance” is appointment television. “Slow Horses” has become one of the most reliably excellent spy series around. “Ted Lasso” was a genuine cultural phenomenon. “The Studio” proved Apple can do sharp comedy as well as prestige drama. And shows like “Shrinking,” “Silo,” “The Morning Show” and “For All Mankind” give the service a deeper bench than its relatively small library might suggest.
There’s prestige drama, sci-fi, comedy, workplace drama, thrillers and big-budget genre series.
The biggest compliment you can give Apple is that its shows increasingly feel like Apple shows without all feeling the same. There’s prestige drama, sci-fi, comedy, workplace drama, thrillers and big-budget genre series.
The movie side is more uneven, though there have been some notable successes like “F1” and “Eternity.” But generally, it has a tendency toward “very expensive movie you might watch eventually” rather than “movie everyone is talking about right now.”
Still, this is the category that makes an Apple TV subscription a slam dunk. You may not always have something to watch, but when Apple gets it right, it really gets it right.
Apple TV: Interface
Apple’s interface is generally clean, polished and easy to navigate, which already puts it ahead of most streaming services. The app does a good job of surfacing Apple’s originals without making the whole experience feel like an endless advertising carousel. Continue Watching is easy to find, show pages are straightforward and the overall design feels appropriately uncluttered.
Apple TV generally makes sense.
There is, however, one major annoyance: Apple TV is increasingly becoming a portal for content that you don’t necessarily own or subscribe to. The service does a good job integrating rentals, purchases and other channels into the broader Apple TV experience, but that can also make it less obvious what’s actually included with your subscription.
It’s a relatively minor complaint compared with some competitors’ interfaces, where simply finding the next episode can feel like an escape room. Apple TV generally makes sense. It just occasionally makes you ask, “Wait, do I have access to this?”
Apple TV: Live content
Apple has made a surprisingly serious push into live sports, and Formula 1 is a big reason why. Apple TV’s F1 coverage goes well beyond simply putting the race on a stream. Subscribers can watch every Grand Prix, qualifying session, Sprint and practice session live, making it one of the most comprehensive ways to follow the F1 season.
Then there’s Multiview, which lets you watch up to four feeds at once. F1 fans can also get considerably closer to the action with 22 onboard driver cameras, a live driver tracker and real-time data feeds during races.
Rather than trying to carry everything, it has invested heavily in a handful of sports
F1 isn’t Apple’s only live-sports play. MLS remains a major part of the service, while Friday Night Baseball brings a weekly slate of MLB games during the season. Apple has also continued to expand its live sports offerings, giving the service more to offer between seasons.
It’s still nowhere near the breadth of a service like Peacock, which has the Olympics, NFL, NBA and other major events. But Apple has taken a smart approach: Rather than trying to carry everything, it has invested heavily in a handful of sports and built genuinely impressive viewing experiences around them.
Note: This is just an evaluation of the live programming on offer in the U.S. Live programming varies by market.
Apple TV overall grade: B-
Apple TV is a little difficult to grade because its strengths and weaknesses are almost perfectly opposed. On one hand, you’re getting a relatively affordable subscription with an excellent collection of original TV, a polished interface and an increasingly interesting live-sports lineup. On the other, the library is tiny compared with what you get from the bigger general-interest streamers.
That means Apple TV makes a fantastic second streaming service; it’s considerably harder to recommend as your only one.
If you want some of the best original TV in streaming, Apple TV is almost impossible to ignore. If you want something to put on every night for the next six months, you’ll probably run out of options considerably faster than you would on Netflix, Peacock or HBO Max. Apple isn’t trying to win the streaming volume game, and honestly, it doesn’t need to. The strategy is quality over quantity — and it’s a great one.
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