Eddy Cue reportedly has bigger plans for Apple’s billion-dollar streaming and ads business

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

According to a report from Insider, Apple's senior vice president of services is considering restructuring the company to focus more on streaming and advertising. In its most recent earnings report, Apple said it added 825 million subscribers and earned $19.8 billion in revenue.

As part of the shake-up, Apple's current vice president of services has been removed from advertising to focus on the services division. Insider has learned that Todd Teresi, Apple's vice president of advertising platforms, has taken over the duties of the previous vice president of advertising, David Stern, who was promoted at the beginning of the year.

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The growth of Apple's ad business could be linked to the App Tracking transparency policy it implemented last year. The policy requires developers to ask users for permission to track various types of data, but opting out prevents apps from using advertising tools to deploy targeted ads.

According to Insider, the policy has pushed companies to spend more of their budget on App Store search ads. According to data from the research firm Omdia, Apple grew its ads business by 238 percent to $3.7 billion in 2021, when compared to 2020, and it predicts the company will earn $5.5 billion in ads alone this year.

It's possible that Apple may want to expand its sports footprint even further, as it offers ad slots during its Friday Night Baseball livestreams. The Insider mentioned that Apple may try to get broadcasting rights to the NBA, and there was a report from Puck that said the acquisition of NFL Sunday Ticket streaming is a done deal.