Apple reinvented personal computing in the 1980s, and then again in the 2000s. It created a vast array of hot little rectangles that we carry everywhere with us, which—depending on who you ask—are either connecting or degrading the social lives of millions of people, and the company created a signature style that has seeped into the groundwater, influencing the design of everything from cars to coffee makers. But TV, it turns out, is hard to do. Apple TV+, the company’s foray into original streaming programming, has been a surprisingly awkward quest since its debut in 2019. The company is willing to pay outlandish amounts of money for original series—the upcoming season of the dystopian office dramedy Severance is reportedly costing $20 million per episode—and critics are always eager to laud the streamer’s successes, but it’s never seemed willing or able to effectively market its shows to actual viewers. In June 2024, according to Nielsen, Apple TV+ accounted for just 0.24 percent of viewing on U.S.-based smart TVs. That’s lower than big name competitors like Netflix (8.4 percent) and Hulu (3 percent), but also significantly behind modest streamers like Tubi and the Roku Channel.
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