Does incoming Apple CEO John Ternus care about the tech giant’s Hollywood side hustle?
Ternus has a lot to figure out as he takes over for longtime CEO Tim Cook, from Apple’s AI strategy to its next hit product. One lower-stakes decision he’ll have to make is what to do with Apple TV, the small video streamer that the company hasn’t said is profitable.
“Streaming has long been adjacent to Apple’s mission,” Mike Proulx, the marketing research director at Forrester, told Business Insider. “With Ternus at the helm, that strategy is unlikely to change.”
Ternus, who’s been Apple’s hardware chief, will have to decide whether Apple TV is worth serious investment.
“Apple TV does not yet make sense as a stand-alone business,” said Brandon Katz, the insights director at entertainment research firm Greenlight Analytics.
Hardware is still the core of Apple
Apple’s biggest strength, aside from its brand, is category-defining hardware such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Under Cook, Apple expanded into wearables like the Apple Watch and AirPods, as well as the pricey Apple Vision Pro headset that never took off.
Cook also built Apple’s Services division, which includes Apple TV and Apple Music, into a 12-figure business. Apple uses those subscriptions and Apple One, which bundles services along with iCloud storage, as a way to keep its customers in its ecosystem.
Still, Apple’s core is its hardware business.
“Apple appointing John Ternus as CEO reinforces a reality — the company has always been a device company first,” Proulx said.
Proulx compared Apple’s CEO succession decision to Disney’s. The Mouse House recently elevated Josh D’Amaro to CEO after he spent years running its lucrative Experiences business.
While Disney’s streaming business is crucial to its future, its cruises and theme parks are the profit engines that power the company. Similarly, Apple’s Services division is a key growth lever, though the bulk of its revenue comes from selling phones, tablets, and laptops.
Within Apple Services, some businesses are also especially profitable. The company doesn’t break down its financials by service, though taking a cut of in-app purchases is much easier than producing prestige TV shows and original movies.
Apple TV is making progress, but is it enough?
Apple TV has notched some major wins since its launch in 2019, but it’s unclear how much its namesake streamer is moving the needle financially — if at all.
Apple’s streamer has a growing library of critically acclaimed shows like “Severance,” live sports like Formula 1, and mainstream hits like “Ted Lasso,” which was the most-watched original show on streaming in 2023, according to Nielsen.
“The streamer is capable of delivering mainstream hits in the competitive streaming marketplace despite its comparatively small size,” Katz said.
Last fall, Apple Services chief Eddy Cue said Apple TV had “significantly more” than the 45 million global subscribers that some reports had suggested, though the company has never publicly disclosed figures. For comparison, Paramount+ has close to 80 million subscribers, Disney has nearly 200 million customers across Disney+ and Hulu, and Netflix said it had 325 million subscribers at the end of 2025.
Apple TV has never charted on Nielsen’s Gauge measurement of TV viewership share in the US. For reference, Peacock — which had 44 million subscribers at the end of 2025 — generates between 1.5% and 2% share most months.
There are some encouraging signs for Apple TV.
Apple’s streaming service averaged 2.1 million monthly sign-ups in the US from March 2025 to last month, according to data firm Antenna. That’s in line with Disney+ and HBO Max and well above Netflix, though the already-massive streamer has less room for growth. Antenna also found that Apple TV’s monthly cancellation rate had fallen from 6.3% last March to 4.8% last month. (Meanwhile, Netflix’s quit rate has been steady at around 2%.)
Unlike its Hollywood rivals, Apple doesn’t need hundreds of millions of subscribers to succeed, since it uses streaming to support other businesses like its hardware and its Apple One bundle.
At the same time, Ternus certainly doesn’t want to waste money that could be put elsewhere, like into AI investments.
The analysts who spoke with Business Insider didn’t think Apple would give up on Hollywood anytime soon. Some said the tech titan should strengthen its streamer by licensing content, though. Katz said an acquisition of Lionsgate could reinforce Apple’s library and boost streaming engagement.
“The real test for Ternus will be whether he empowers his streaming team creatively,” Proulx said. “Apple TV succeeds not by acting like Netflix, but by acting like Apple.”
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