Why Apple's App Store Beatdown is SO SO HUGE for Streamers
Financial gains are coming for Netflix, Disney, WBD, Peacock & Paramount (but not Apple TV+) in the first of my two looks at Trump's Big Tech breakups
I offer analysis for paid subscribers every other Thursday. I recently wrote about streaming winners & losers in creating and sustaining franchises; how to bring $50M-$100M movies back; and the audience chart every exec should obsess over.
Spotify made a big change to its iPhone app last week. For new customers who wanted to sign up for Spotify’s paid tier, instead of going through a complicated process of finding the Spotify website, logging in and subscribing, then going back to the app . . .
. . . all they had to do was click one button and Spotify took them to their website, where they could sign up at a reduced price.
Why did Spotify suddenly offer this convenient, cheaper alternative?
Because Apple finally let them.
Or I should say, Apple was finally forced to let them.
In a landmark ruling released on April 30, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Northern California ruled that Apple had violated her ruling to allow off-Apple payments and must stop violating her order. She also recommended Apple for contempt of court and referred one executive to the DA for having “outright lied under oath.” Yikes!
“Landmark” is indeed the best word to use to describe this ruling, and it caps off perhaps the most consequential month in the history of antitrust in more than a century. (I’ll write about what’s happening with Google, Meta and the state of M&A thus far in the Trump administration in part two.)
The Apple story is a huge one that affects one of the primary gatekeepers which mediates access to consumers, and it directly competes against Hollywood. Yet the entertainment trades largely ignored them.
So that’s what I’m writing about today: the immediate impacts of the Apple decision for streamers. (Note: I’m not a lawyer, so I’ll use some legal terms more casually than jurists might.)
In this article, I will tell you:
How Apple’s 30 percent App Store fee has been draining Hollywood coffers for years
The streamers about to get a massive boost to their profitability
Which streamers are currently most reliant on Apple for in-app signups
Why Netflix and Disney will not be among the biggest winners
How one remedy to Google’s search monopoly could hurt Apple TV+
Why creators will also benefit from limits on Apple’s App Store tax
Where Apple can now expect more pain on its business model