I don't believe there's any question. When you get up into the ten figures range, you can't afford to give it away.
I'm not so sure, at least initially. Apple wants to grow ATV+ and they also want to sell devices, which is their core business (after all, iTunes was built to sell iPods back in the day). So I do think that the bump they get in subscriptions might be worth it for a company that can literally BUY multiple third world countries if they chose to. Short term loss for long term gain. And the rumor is they are coming out with a new ATV that will include a lot of Echo like features, possibly including a camera. So they want to sell their service and they want to sell devices. Having ST could potentially DOUBLE their subscription base. So I can see for a year or two them giving it away to existing subscribers, and perhaps bumping new subscribers to $6.99 (which is STILL cheaper than many of the services, and much cheaper than Netflix and HBO Max).
Another thing, is the plan to require you buy an ATV device for ST? If not, then for commercial use, businesses could invest in a $20 Roku or Firestick (if ATV+ is on the FS) per TV. I don't know what kind of cost outlay they would have to do. But it's also possible the ST service could wind up cheaper for them. I think all of that is yet to be worked out.
