This feels like one of those Apple stories that’s going to be speculated about every few weeks until the company announces it. Bloomberg is the latest media outlet predicting that Apple will launch a bundle of its digital services – including Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple News+ – and it thinks the bundle could launch as soon as 2020.
“The latest sign of this strategy is a provision that Apple included in deals with publishers that lets the iPhone maker bundle the News+ subscription service with other paid digital offerings,” claimed its report, adding that: “If Apple sold Apple News+ as part of a bundle with Apple TV+ and Apple Music, publishers would get less money because the cost of the news service would likely be reduced”.
Which begs the question of how such a bundle might affect the revenues being paid out to music rightsholders for Apple Music, although also what provisions would be required in their deals with the company to pave the way for such a bundle. That said, news publishers may have the weakest position in this scenario: a separate report from CNBC claims that while Apple signed up 200,000 subscribers to its $9.99-a-month news service in the first 48 hours after its launch in March 2019, it has “struggled to add customers” since.
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