What Apple TV’s subtle name change might signal in streaming

When you minus a plus, you could still be left with a positive. At least, that’s what a basic understanding of math points to, and what Apple might be going for.

The tech giant’s streaming service recently underwent a subtle rebrand, dropping the plus sign from Apple TV+ to simply become Apple TV, a move the company said in a press release was part of a “vibrant new identity” for the streamer. But there’s one problem—Apple TV is already the name of the company’s existing connected TV hardware device and its streaming app, and the plus sign had previously helped delineate the difference.

It’s a dilemma for customers who might need to refer to the different products or who are new to the Apple universe, but the pared-down moniker could also be reflective of how users interact with the streaming world today, according to Anthony Shore, chief operative at brand naming agency Operative Words.

“Apple has always been about simplicity in all kinds of ways, and this is a continuation of those efforts,” Shore told us. “Clearly it’s their intention that they want ‘Apple TV’ to mean all of these different things [related to entertainment].”

Plus rush

Apple wasn’t the only brand to adopt the “+” naming convention when streaming became a serious scene. Disney, ESPN, and Paramount all opted to use the symbol in the names of their streaming services..

“These companies wanted to create a distinction between what they aired on broadcast television and what was now available on demand, on streaming,” he said. “‘Plus’ was their way of signaling that, and it afforded them a little buffer of safety in case things didn’t really work out.”

While some branding experts at the time critiqued the plethora of pluses, the adoption of a streaming category naming convention could also be seen as useful and empathetic to the consumer, Shore said, setting them up to more easily understand what was being offered. The issue, though, was that the plus sign seemed to mean ever so slightly different things to different companies, ranging from a large collection of owned content beyond what was offered on broadcast (like with Disney+), to an ad-free, premium experience of original content (Apple TV+), to an owned and licensed content library (Paramount+).

Bobby Hougham, founder, ECD, and CCO of creative branding agency The New Blank, told us that Apple TV’s original adoption of the plus sign was the most out of place among streamers.

“The intent [of many streamers] was that maybe we could show some different and unique stuff, so it was additive, and the plus actually kind of made sense,” Hougham said. “Apple TV+ doesn’t make any sense because there is no other place to watch Apple programming.”

A modern minus?

Apple TV is not the only streaming service to recently drop the plus sign. CNN+, a premium streaming news service that shut down less than a month after debuting in 2022, is coming back (sort of) as CNN All Access, while ESPN+ was effectively sunset amid a new ESPN app roll-out earlier this year. While there are still some plussed-up streamers remaining, Shore believes this gradual shed reflects a decreased need to distinguish between streaming entertainment offerings.

“This is what has always happened any time a new technology has emerged and become ubiquitous,” Shore said, pointing to the early-internet trend of putting “E” or “I” in front of company and product names, like eHarmony and iPod. “A new technology emerges, companies find a way to signal that, and sometimes that becomes an industry standard practice. And then once that becomes ubiquitous, that marker of that new technology doesn’t make sense, and holding on to it can look a little ridiculous and can look dated.”

Still, dropping the perhaps-dated part of Apple’s streaming brand while still having other products with the same name has passed the burden of communication and clarity on to users and anybody who might be talking about the products, Shore said.

And while adopting “Apple TV” may align more closely with what customers colloquially call the streamer, Alexandra Watkins, founder and chief innovation officer at branding agency Eat My Words, told us that when it comes to avoiding customer confusion, it could be too little, too late.

“Brands need to look into their crystal ball when they’re naming anything,” Watkins said. “Look into the crystal ball and imagine ‘What could this be in the future?’”