Truth+ Could Be the Missing Link in a Business Model That’s Never Met a Loss It Didn’t Like

The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here… if by “we” we mean that one guy I met at Walmart the other day who was wearing a Sean Hannity shirt and has a laminated photo of Kid Rock in his wallet.

Truth Social has officially jumped into the streaming wars with its brand-new platform: Truth+. It’s now live globally, available across iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and just about any screen that doesn’t immediately combust from watching Newsmax in 4K. And yes, that’s the headliner… Newsmax is the main attraction. So if you’ve been dying to stream a channel where hosts say “woke” 74 times before the first ad break and passionately explain why we should go to war with Iran again, congrats… your moment has arrived. In other words: Netflix has Bridgerton. Truth+ has a Fox News lookalike with more war propaganda.

But let’s give credit where it’s due. Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) managed to launch a streaming service before CNN+ could figure out what it was doing… and that disaster burned $300 million in 30 days. Still, before we start handing out trophies, let’s talk reality. Because launching a streaming service in 2025 is like showing up to a bar fight shirtless, with a White Claw in your hand (not exactly scaring anyone).

You know who actually makes money streaming? …no one. Apple TV+ is reportedly losing over $1 billion a year despite having award-winning content and 45 million users (the new F1 movie is a huge win). Peacock? Lost $2.8 billion trying to become relevant, then went back to being that thing you forgot you had a login for. Even Paramount+ (which has more subscribers than there are Canadians) lost nearly half a billion in a single quarter. So yeah, the economics are brutal.

So here comes Truth+, launched off the back of Truth Social, a company that pulled in just $3.6 million in revenue last year and somehow managed to lose over $400 million doing it. Now that I think about it, this might be a perfect next step, because lighting money on fire might be the most consistent part of their business model.

Now, if you’re Devin Nunes or Chris Ruddy, you’ll say this is all part of a noble mission to provide “non-woke” content to the masses and challenge the media monolith. And sure, maybe there’s an audience for that. But when it comes to running a profitable streaming platform, Truth+ is starting with all the wrong tools and none of the leverage.

Truth Social has about 6 million active users. If you’re wildly optimistic, maybe 10% of them sign up for Truth+. That’s 600,000 subscribers… at best. To put that into perspective, Netflix has 270 million. Even Hulu is cruising with 50+ million. Streaming, unfortunately, is a scale game. Without numbers, you get no leverage for licensing deals, no real ad revenue, and no negotiating power.

Then there’s the content problem. Right now, it’s Newsmax or bust. Which is fine if you’re only trying to reach a specific, ultra-engaged demo. But even the most devoted political junkies eventually ask: what else you got? (right before going back to Spotify to listen to Tucker Carlson). If there’s no original programming, no reruns, no nostalgic sitcoms from the early 2000s to fall asleep to, people won’t stick around. Netflix didn’t get to 270 million subscribers on documentaries about the Federal Reserve. They got there with Tiger King, Stranger Things, and spending money like crazy.

On top of that, launching globally isn’t the flex you would think. It’s a money pit. You need devs constantly squashing bugs, QA testers across time zones, legal teams making sure your content doesn’t get flagged in six languages, and servers that won’t melt when 12 people try to stream Newsmax at once. That’s a lot of burn rate for a company whose business model looks like it was sketched on an Arby's napkin.

Even worse, they still don’t have a monetization strategy. There’s no clear pricing model. No bundled offering. No premium upsells. They don’t have an ad stack or the user base to support serious ad revenue. And without sticky content, subscribers are gonna be gone in the blink of an eye (unless Trump brings back The Apprentice: Tariff edition).  So what’s the real play here? Is Truth+ supposed to be a moneymaker? Or is it just another digital megaphone, a platform built not to profit… but to preach?

Honestly, that might be the smartest take. Because if this is about business, they’re in trouble. But if it’s about brand extension, influence, and turning viewers into donors or voters, then maybe it works. That would explain why DJT shares only rose 0.6% after the launch while Newsmax stock actually dropped 2.6%... investors aren’t betting on this being the next Hulu. They’re just hoping it survives long enough to outlive the next news cycle.

At the end of the day, Truth+ is diving headfirst into a streaming warzone with a single weapon: ideology. But ideology doesn’t pay for bandwidth. It doesn’t cover production budgets. And it sure as heck doesn’t build the next Breaking Bad.

So unless they’ve got a surprise content hit in their back pocket or a genius bundling strategy, this whole venture feels a lot less like Netflix 2.0… and a lot more like the political version of Quibi. But hey, at least you can stream Newsmax all day (if you’re into depression).

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Apple and Netflix as mentioned in the article.