After launching the one-year free trial to Apple TV+ with select new Apple device purchases starting back in November 2019, Apple is reducing the free offer period to 3 months, starting in July.
Apple TV+ is about to take off the training wheels.
Since the computer giant’s streaming service launched back in November 2019, the company has been wooing potential subscribers by offering them a full year of TV+ for free whenever they bought an iPhone, iPad, or other major piece of hardware. And when the first of those free trials were set to expire last fall, Apple generously decided to extend them — not once, but twice. But now, the days of cheap and easy Apple TV+ are apparently over… consumers will finally be forced to decide whether TV+ merits its sticker price of $5 per month.
There’s obviously a risk that TV+ is about to lose a big chunk of its subscriber base. But whatever happens, shortening future trial offers, and ending the ones which were extended, is a strong hint that Cook and his exec team believe their fledgling streamer is ready to start fighting for customers without a safety net.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple TV+ subscribers will drop – initially – before resuming its upward trajectory as some of our favorite series – Ted Lasso and Trying, among them (both are sweet, but not cloying) – are on Apple TV+ and already renewed for future seasons. Not to mention that Apple TV+ is already part of every Apple One tier, so Apple will lose fewer subscribers than many, at first blush, might think.
