WASHINGTON — Apple is raising the price of its Apple TV+ streaming service, hiking the monthly subscription fee to $9.99 per month from its previous $6.99 per month price.
The annual package will now cost $99, up from $69. The new prices were posted Wednesday on Apple's website. The company is also hiking the price of its Apple Arcade and Apple News+ subscription services to $6.99 per month and $12.99 per month, respectively.
Apple One, a bundle package to access Apple's services at a lower price will also increase, with the top tier Premier level now costing $37.95 per month.
Last October, Apple raised the price of its subscription streaming service for the first time - from $4.99 per month to $6.99 per month.
The move follows similar price increases made by other streaming companies, including Disney and Netflix.
Earlier this month, Netflix announced the cost for its most expensive streaming service would go up by $2 to $23 per month in the U.S. — a 10% increase — and its lowest-priced, ad-free streaming plan to $12 — another $2 bump. The $15.50 per month price for Netflix's most popular streaming option in the U.S. will remain unchanged, as will a $7 monthly plan that includes intermittent commercials.
Disney's price hikes will raise the monthly cost of ad-free Disney+ by $3, or roughly 27%, to almost $14. The cost of ad-free Hulu will likewise rise $3 to almost $18 — a 20% hike that will make it more expensive than the most popular ad-free tier at Netflix. Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger has acknowledged that its price hikes are intended to steer consumers toward cheaper ad-supported versions of these services, whose subscription prices are not changing.