The Apple TV Rebrand Aimed For Consistency, But Users Say It's More Confusing Than Ever

It looks like Apple's team is on a hot streak of brand identity refreshing lately. A month ago, Apple removed the "Plus" iPhone from its portfolio and substituted it with an Air model. A few months prior to that, every major operating system with a numerical identifier was uniformly updated to version 26. The next in line for the branding is the company's streaming TV platform: Apple TV+ is no more, and is being replaced by Apple TV. Why did Apple make the move?

There's no official explanation, but it seems there wasn't any deeply philosophical or commercially critical reason behind it. Apparently, it was simply because the user base colloquially referred to the entire platform as simply Apple TV, without the "Plus." Apparently, that's what pushed the company to get rid of the "+" from the name. Apple was clearly not aiming for branding consistency here, it's just that Apple didn't want a "Plus" for the TV platform, even though it still lingers for services such as News+, Fitness+, and iCloud+.

"We put the Plus in there because we've used it in our other services," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Services, said in an interview on The Town podcast. "We do that when we have a free service, and then there's a paid version. We stayed consistent because of it. But we all called it Apple TV, and we said, you know, given where we are today, it's a great time to do it. So let's just do it." At the end of the day, it's a confusing situation, and I can't help but feel that's an inconsistent brand renaming strategy that simply wants to make some headlines, or just an error of judgement.

On social forums such as Reddit and X, memes have popped up mocking Apple's move. "Apple TV on your Apple TV," wrote one user on Reddit. And yeah, it's a pretty confusing state of affairs between the set-top box, streaming service, and the app — all bearing the same. "How do you explain to a senior the difference between Apple TV the device, Apple TV the app, and Apple TV the service ... and the fact that none of them is actually a TV?" quipped another Reddit user.

Well, despite what Cue said on the podcast, it seems the streaming industry, in general, has had a volatile history with the "+" branding. Over the past decade, consumers have been blessed with services such as AMC+, Discovery+, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, and even the short-lived CNN+. Even Pluto TV joined in on the fun on X.

what did the + even stand for

— Pluto TV (@PlutoTV) October 13, 2025

So, if I have a Samsung TV and connect it to the Apple TV (the box), it gives me access to the Apple TV (app), where I can watch "Severance" on Apple TV (the streaming platform). You see where I am going with this. I would say that "Plus" was actually a differentiating factor for Apple and its streaming service, and Apple needed that unique branding (more so than Disney+ or ESPN+) because these rivals don't have to offer any hardware. The "+" simply served as an identifier for a paid tier. Moves like the latest rebranding only add to the confusion for an average consumer like me. It seems that Apple didn't want to follow a strategy that others have in place of wanting to stand out by making a seemingly "bold" move.