Sources: Apple may reduce the 30% cut it takes from publishers on Newsstand and many video providers on Apple TV
Apple will likely … Roger Fingas / AppleInsider : This week on AppleInsider: Apple Music, TV delays, HomeKit & more Kyle Wiggers / Digital Trends : Apple may start taking a smaller cut of App Store and iTunes sales Jacob Kleinman / TechnoBuffalo : Apple considers taking a smaller cut of App Store sales Stephen Schenck / Pocketnow : Apple may seriously reduce its 30 percent take from certain content providers Juli Clover / MacRumors : Apple Planning to Change 30/70 Pricing Formula for In-App Media Subscriptions Nate Hoffelder / Ink, Bits, & Pixels : Apple Reportedly Planning to Reduce Vig to 15% - Will It Impact eBooks? Mercury News : Live blog: Apple WWDC 2015 keynote, 9:30 a.m. Monday Mark Sullivan / VentureBeat : Apple's new music service will reportedly be called Apple Music Buster Hein / Cult of Mac : Apple plans to kill its 70/30 split for in-app subscriptions Joseph Keller / iMore : Apple reportedly considering lowering the cut it takes on media apps Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac : Apple reportedly looking to reduce 30% revenue cut for music, video and news apps with subscriptions Tweets: Peter Kafka / @pkafka : @MikeIsaac Apple TV service won't have a 70/30 rev split, whenever it shows up. Newsstand may also change one day. That's it. See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's flat 30/70 split has been friction point number one with media partners: it had already been building a paywall system so publishers could sell subscriptions inside the News app, and the same tension later surfaced when a paid news service met publisher resistance to Apple's demand for roughly half the revenue and no subscriber data.
This FT report marks the moment that pressure starts bending pricing itself: rather than one universal commission, Apple signals willingness to charge less from Newsstand publishers and many Apple TV video providers — a template it later formalized by cutting the App Store fee to 15% for streaming apps that integrate with its TV app.
First-order effects
- Newsstand publishers and video providers distributing through Apple TV immediately face a lower marginal cost of using Apple's channel, improving their per-subscriber economics versus selling direct.
- Apple trades short-term commission revenue for broader content inventory on Newsstand and Apple TV, strengthening those shelves against rivals' storefronts.
Second-order effects
- Content owners gain leverage to demand comparable terms on other platforms, forcing competing app stores and TV storefronts to defend their own take rates.
- Discounted distribution becomes a bargaining chip: Apple can condition better splits on integration with its own apps and services, deepening partner dependence on its ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform commissions move structurally from uniform rates to tiered, negotiated schedules set per category and per partner — the dynamic now debated as the regulated-platform-take-rate question across app stores.
- Media companies' willingness to hand over customer relationships becomes the real currency of these deals, pushing platforms to compete on data-sharing terms as much as on price.
The trend: App-store economics are drifting from a one-size 30% toll toward differentiated, strategically conditioned take rates as platforms compete for premium content.