Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment As if teaching your dad the difference between Apple TV and Apple TV+ was not difficult enough before... On Monday, Apple quietly rebranded its SVOD (subscription video on demand) service Apple TV+ as just "Apple TV". The intention is to provide the streamer a "vibrant new identity," Apple said, but as anyone with a second grade education knows, minus-ing a plus can often result in a negative. Apple buried its TV+/TV rebrand in a press release announcing the streaming premiere date (Dec. 12) for its F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. As of this writing, the core Apple streaming app, the one with Severance, still showed Apple TV+ badging. Related Stories Business Apple TV Drops Plus Sign From Name in New Rebranding Effort Lifestyle As Apple TV+ Raises Prices, Soccer Fans Score Big With Nearly 70 Percent Off Apple's MLS Season Pass There is just one problem with the rebrand: Apple TV is already the name of something. Apple's popular connected-TV device, which competes with Amazon's Fire Stick and Roku devices, is called Apple TV (and has been since 2007). Apple TV, like a Fire Stick or a Roku, essentially turns a not-smart-TV into a smart TV, serving as the idiot box's gateway to streaming video via an HDMI connection. You could connect to Apple TV+ through an Apple TV or any similar device (or smart TV). Now, one way to watch Ted Lasso is on Apple TV via Apple TV. There are ... no pluses here. It is possible the quiet rebrand is a sign of things to come; one could be an ad-supported plan. We've long wondered when that would happen: Apple TV(+) is the only major streaming service without a cheaper tier made so by commercials. It's not for a lack of capability. Apple TV(+) has a sister streamer for MLS games that's had commercials from its opening whistle - soccer players need their water and orange slices, so soccer viewers get ad breaks. And Apple has hired a number of TV advertising veterans over the past couple of years. Apple, a $3.7 trillion company by market cap, has been able to comfortably shirk advertising revenue for Apple TV+, a prestige-play/loss leader that lifts the value of the Apple One services bundle; everything in the bundle is bait to sell iPhones. It's not that Apple doesn't want a profitable SVOD service - Apple raised the price of Apple TV+ by more than 30 percent back in August, rising to $12.99 per month, up from $9.99 - but it doesn't need one. Apple isn't the first to subtract the plus sign from its streaming platform. ESPN did the same in August - sort of. On Aug. 21, the new ESPN app ($29.99 monthly) launched. The new direct-to-consumer app, simply called "ESPN," both replaces ESPN+ and doesn't. The new ESPN app includes all ESPN+ content as well as live streams of ESPN's several cable TV channels. ESPN (the app - the expensive one) has some other exclusive sports content as well. "ESPN+" is technically still around as it is offered by a few cable providers; it's basically treated as another ESPN channel these days. Remember CNN+? Of course you don't. CNN's first attempt at a standalone pay-streaming service didn't make it a month. The product of the Jeff Zucker-era network, which did not include a live stream of CNN's linear feed, fell victim to the ownership transition of CNN from AT&T to Warner Bros. Discovery. The network then hooked up (some of) its linear feed and plugged it in to HBO Max for a streaming effort called CNN Max. But that product is now being phased out as well as CNN readies a standalone streaming subscription to a product that will just be called ... CNN. HBO Max, like Peacock, is one of the brave streamers to buck the half-a-math-equation trend popularized by Disney+ in 2018. Fun fact (for this story): Apple TV+ actually beat Disney+ to market by 11 days, but the Disney+ name was revealed four months prior to Apple's own announcement. ESPN+ happened before those things, but that streamer didn't reach the mainstream. Hulu Plus in 2010 is the granddaddy of them all, though it went with phonetics over mathematics. Hopping aboard the "plus" train were BET+ (September 2019), AMC+ (June 2020), Discovery+ (January 2021) and Paramount+ (March 2021). Each of those are still clinging to their plus signs - for now. 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