In what could be Apple's quietest and most subtle rebranding exercise in its history, Apple TV+ is slowly losing the Plus and confusingly becoming just "Apple TV."
The Apple TV+ streaming service is very similarly named to the Apple TV set-top box, but now the names are identical. Thanks to a small rebranding effort by Apple, the two are now known as Apple TV.
In a paragraph at the end of a press release about "F1 The Movie" arriving on the streaming service, Apple announced the name change.
"Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity," Apple writes, before confirming it will still be available to purchase via various platforms. That includes the Apple TV app.
While this is the first press release from Apple about its streaming service that clearly announces the name change, it's oddly not the first to bring it up.
The press release for "The Last Frontier," dated October 10, is headlined using the Plus version of the brand and refers to it as Apple TV+ initially. However, at the end, it refers to the streaming service by its non-Plus name.
To add to the confusion, Apple doesn't seem to be changing the name of the other components using the same name. The Apple TV app and the Apple TV set-top box are still referred to by those names in the press release.
For the moment, the Apple TV+ section of the Apple website still refers to it as Apple TV+. It remains to be seen how long we will have to wait to see that changed to the new shorter name.
At least the iTunes store is still around. For now.
