Apple TV+
Ranked 8 of 20 streaming services by recommenders
Recommended for its polished, critically acclaimed original shows and smooth playback on many devices. Common caveat: frequent ads and trailers for other shows before playback.
Recommended for its polished, critically acclaimed original shows and smooth playback on many devices. Common caveat: frequent ads and trailers for other shows before playback.
42 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 20
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Critically acclaimed original shows
“Apple TV+ is literally the new HBO. They produce some of the most critically acclaimed shows on the planet.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams” “I would actually prefer Apple's catalogue of Sci-Fi shows over anything I can find on Netflix these days.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix” “Putting gobs of money into storytelling yields purer, and therefore more compelling, narratives”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Another Day Has Come” - Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman”
- Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros”
- Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams”
- Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix”
Smooth playback across devices
“was pleasantly surprised it performed far better, on an android tv even”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “What I Learned After Building 3 TV Apps Coming from Mobile” “I use Roku for Apple TV (the streaming service) and works great.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K” “Apple TV’s 4K content is given plenty of bandwidth.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Babylon 5 Is Now Free to Watch on YouTube” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs”
Good picture quality
“i can't notice any banding or moire effect on pretty much any AppleTV+ content”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “I reverse-engineered Netflix's 4K restrictions” “Currently the streamer with the highest consistent quality is Apple”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros” Curated, no-ad-break viewing
“Having a curated list of rotating popular old movies made it easy to pick what to watch.”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Apple TV just added a bunch of classic movies to stream for free” “don't have ads breaks in the middle of the media for me”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Americans still opt for print books over digital or audio versions”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ads and trailers before shows
“I get super bent out of shape when Apple TV+ advertises shows before the one I am trying to watch”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions” “it drives me crazy to get a preroll of other TV+ movies and TV shows I couldn't care less about”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “They've had a commercial (trailer) before every show / movie we've watched in the past week.”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams” - Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions”
- Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions”
Costly bet, shows not better
“I find Apple to be different lowest common denominator with high production value. I don't think the shows are really any better.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix” “a couple of big investments that might have been better spent elsewhere e.g. Apple TV+ and the Apple Car”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good” “AppleTV+ is actually a major financial problem for Apple.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K” Hard to manage the subscription
“So to watch an hour of TV I had to spend over 30 minutes faffing about with the stupid website.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs” “my 2yo had "subscribed" to Apple TV+ by just randomly clicking around”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options” “my TV+ subscription I forgot to cancel and don't even use”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Apple reports second quarter results”
Other streaming services people recommend
The four most recommended other streaming services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Premium | 197 | 195 | 50% | 13 | 10 yrs10 owners | — |
| Netflix | 181 | 538 | 25% | 12 | 15 yrs10 owners | — |
| Nebula | 58 | 17 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| HBO | 32 | 32 | 50% | 7 | — | — |
| Apple TV+This page | 22 | 20 | 52% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 46 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it drives me crazy to get a preroll of other TV+ movies and TV shows I couldn't care less about”
“AppleTV+ is actually a major financial problem for Apple.”
“I use Roku for Apple TV (the streaming service) and works great.”
“does not paint AppleTV+ in a favorable light whatsoever”
“Then back to torrents to avoid all the trailers and ads and curated feed.”
“But you are forced to watch ads for other shows before viewing an Apple original.”
“I get super bent out of shape when Apple TV+ advertises shows before the one I am trying to watch”
“Having a curated list of rotating popular old movies made it easy to pick what to watch.”
“it aggregates, but it's still a big fat mess”
“I've felt they are increasingly de-prioritizing the old iTunes business to focus on Apple TV+”
“not really something that knows your tastes”
“my TV+ subscription I forgot to cancel and don't even use”
“a couple of big investments that might have been better spent elsewhere e.g. Apple TV+ and the Apple Car”
“Putting gobs of money into storytelling yields purer, and therefore more compelling, narratives”
“it's very worthy and good - arguably one of Tim Cook's finest achievements”
“don't have ads breaks in the middle of the media for me”
“At least TV+ is named differently.”
“TVs are NOT powerful. It's like writing software for the Lunar rover.”
“was pleasantly surprised it performed far better, on an android tv even”
“their streaming service website has been miserable”
“Apple TV’s 4K content is given plenty of bandwidth.”
“They've had a commercial (trailer) before every show / movie we've watched in the past week.”
“Commercials in TV+ are as bad as ads in News+”
“Apple TV+ is literally the new HBO. They produce some of the most critically acclaimed shows on the planet.”
“insanely high quality shows”
“i can't notice any banding or moire effect on pretty much any AppleTV+ content”
“I've been getting intrusive first-party ads in Apple's OSes”
“Apple is moving into the subscription everything model slowly if you noticed.”
“I still find it perplexing that Apple TV the service and Apple TV the device have the same name”
“it's not just what you watch with the streaming service, it is everything you watch through their TV program”
“my 2yo had "subscribed" to Apple TV+ by just randomly clicking around”
“TV+ is a top-tier streaming service with huge subscriber numbers”
“Apple has a family friendly bent”
“I find Apple to be different lowest common denominator with high production value. I don't think the shows are really any better.”
“Currently the streamer with the highest consistent quality is Apple”
“I would actually prefer Apple's catalogue of Sci-Fi shows over anything I can find on Netflix these days.”
“Apple has good shows, too.”
“it does work beautifully on their devices”
“So to watch an hour of TV I had to spend over 30 minutes faffing about with the stupid website.”
“Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, RDP, Teams, etc...”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.