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Media Television Apple Entertainment

Apple Extends Free Apple TV+ Trials For Three Months (cnbc.com) 29

Posted by BeauHD from the afraid-of-losing-subscribers dept.
Apple told CNBC that it will extend some Apple TV+ subscriptions on a free one-year trial for three additional months. From the report: When Apple TV+ launched last fall, Apple bundled a free one-year subscription with the purchase of an Apple product, immediately boosting the number of people who could watch the streaming service. The first of those trial subscriptions were previously going to expire at the start of November, meaning that people on the one-year trial who had not cancelled were going to be charged $4.99 per month for the streaming service.

Now subscribers whose trial expires before February will get three additional months of Apple TV+ for free. This means that someone who bought an iPhone on December 1 and activated Apple TV+ on the same day will have access to the service through March 1, when billing starts. Apple has not revealed the number of Apple TV+ subscribers. The service has fewer TV shows and movies than rivals like Disney+, which surpassed 60 million subscribers in August after launching last November. Netflix has more than 190 million subscribers around the world, it said in July. But unlike those services, Apple TV+ doesn't have a back catalog of reruns.
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Apple Extends Free Apple TV+ Trials For Three Months More

Apple Extends Free Apple TV+ Trials For Three Months

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  • Not enough people actually paying (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NickDngr ( 561211 ) on Thursday October 08, 2020 @04:05PM (#60586404) Journal
    This is a clear indication that most of their subscriptions are from people that bought an Apple device and got a free sub. They don't want their subscription numbers to drop precipitously as the free trials end and they're afraid most of their subscribers won't turn into paying customers.

    • It also doesn't help that they have almost no compelling new content coming out soon to get people to pay for the service when the trial expires.

      At least Disney+ had Season 2 of The Mandalorian to tempt subscribers to stick around for a few months. Apple doesn't seem to have a season 2 ready for any of the shows that the launched with.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gsdfa ( 6545090 )
        I'd have to rank Greyhound as disappointing movie of the decade.

        • I'd have to rank Greyhound as disappointing movie of the decade.

          Ehh, I wasn't a fan of it at all (e.g. it had significant pacing issues, mixed messages, mediocre character development, poor narrative framing, etc.), and it certainly didn't do Apple any favors in changing my opinion of Apple TV+ (though it did roughly double the cumulative number of minutes of TV+ content I've watched), but saying it's the disappointing movie of the decade? That's a stretch. There were plenty of movies that were billed much higher and fell much further.

          I generally enjoy Hanks' slower-pac

        • Interesting, my family thought it was one of the best Naval WWII movies made. We all loved it. Exciting, almost documentary feel but with a strong lead and good tension throughout. It is hard to make a movie these days that tells a simple, focused story. I feel like people want these 2-3 hour long "action" movies that show every character with a convoluted, deep backstory. Every character has to have profound motivations and trauma to explain their presence. Eh...

          This is a nice, exciting but straight forwar

    • I think it's that plus a little more.

      1) Like you said, people aren't re-subbing at the rate they wanted, so they're hoping to hook more people by keeping them around for a few extra months.

      2) Most of the second seasons were delayed due to COVID. They had originally thought the second seasons would be available within the freebie window and would provide a hook to keep those users subbed, but now they're having to offer an extension to ensure the hook is actually in place.

      3) Presuming that they offer the "fr

      • I think that's a pretty good list of what is going on, especially point 2 and point 3, someone else mentioned how they don't have much new content coming out in the near term.

        AppleTV+ also still lacks any one show a lot of people talk about, some may be pretty good and get awards but none of them seem to be smash hits...

        Apple at least has the funding to go for the long haul, eventually they will stumble on something great I imagine.

        • some may be pretty good and get awards but none of them seem to be smash hits...

          I mean, to put things in perspective, Apple was bragging about their 18 Emmy nominations [apple.com] across all their shows, but didn't win a single one. Meanwhile, HBO got 26 nominations for Watchmen alone, and took home 11 wins across their shows. Likewise, Apple received three Golden Globe nominations (all for The Morning Show), but didn't take home a win.

          I'm not writing them off (though I will be letting my free subscription expire), since this is definitely a long-term play on their part, but at least Disney+ got

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          I think that's a pretty good list of what is going on, especially point 2 and point 3, someone else mentioned how they don't have much new content coming out in the near term.

          AppleTV+ also still lacks any one show a lot of people talk about, some may be pretty good and get awards but none of them seem to be smash hits...

          Apple at least has the funding to go for the long haul, eventually they will stumble on something great I imagine.

          I think a really big one was missed - Apple didn't finalize any content cont

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        The real problem with one year free, people sucked the stream dry and there was no content left for them and time to swap. If you do not rotate you streaming service you are silly. Six months to a year max, before dropping them and maybe picking them up again in a years time.

    • For customers with multiple Apple devices, it is conceivable that they could run continuously on complementary subscriptions due to upgrade cycles. However, if things are currently delayed that could leave someone with a gap, which loosens the attachement of that customer for further products.

      I have already seen people talking about what effect a 13 month gap in iPhone releases vs. 12 month has on the Upgrade plan: 12 months to trade in, 24 months for full ownership, but at 13 months they how have 1 month o

  • I still won't pay for the service.

    There's very little on it or even forthcoming in the next year that's worth the cost.

    Apple One's bundling package (games, music, tv and cloud storage) was an interesting idea but $15/month for the same 50gb of storage I pay $1/month for just to add in games, music and TV that I have never had a desire to purchase separately just doesn't make sense.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Etcetera ( 14711 )

      Apple One's bundling package (games, music, tv and cloud storage) was an interesting idea but $15/month for the same 50gb of storage I pay $1/month for just to add in games, music and TV that I have never had a desire to purchase separately just doesn't make sense.

      I can't say I'd really pay for AppleTV+ by itself, considering how many other services I'm subscribed to and hardly use, however I'm already on the Family Music plan and have a storage add-on. I'm definitely okay spending another $4.99 for four peoples' access to more streaming content for a month, even if I don't use it much myself.

      If we're going to have tech ecosystems, I feel like it at least makes sense for them to offer good family plan discounts on things like this. That's the way to keep things stick

    • I still won't pay for the service.

      There's very little on it or even forthcoming in the next year that's worth the cost.

      Same. I have the free subscription and have probably watched 4-5 hours of content in total, none of which I found to be better than mediocre at best, whereas I've been binge watching Netflix this last week, have at least a half dozen films I'd like to catch up on with Disney+, and am (to my great surprise) actually looking forward to WandaVision and some of the other projects they've announced for Disney+ in the next few months.

      Foundation is the only project Apple has currently announced that interests me,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by imidan ( 559239 )
      I, for one, appreciate the occasional Slashdot article about Apple TV+ so I can keep in mind to cancel when my free trial is coming up on expiring.
  • when something is free YOU are the product.
  • I think I looked at it once. Like cable, it is NBC (Nothing But Crap). I am sure it will get better. I have Amazon Prime and don't hardly ever watch anything on that except their originals. Outside content is usually free for the first season and the pay. NetFlix is free with T-Mobile. I would pay for that. Streaming is too crowded.

  • Too late (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I cancelled my free subscription that runs out this Christmas, just so I didn’t forget and risked that auto renewal. It was set to one year renewal rather than monthly as standard.
    It was just too much American politically correct BS for me.

  • Ok, so there is a _little_ but of a back catalog. They have The Fraggles. My kids love them. So...yeah.

    I enjoyed Mythic quest.

    I enjoyed Ted Lasso.

    Kids have enjoyed the Fraggles shows and Snoopy in Space.

    Beyond that I aggressively dislike even the ads for most other Apple TV shows and would pay money to NOT have to watch them.

    I will not be extending my free subscription (we own The Fraggles on DVD already..)

  • I bought one a couple of months ago and so far I haven't used it much (for the apple content, anyway). I mainly use it for Netflix and Amazon Prime. There's precious little to watch that's from Apple that also doesn't also want me to pay more money to watch it. What's the point of paying a subscription to a service that puts a price tag on everything?!

    • Re:Not enough shows (Score:5, Informative)

      by teg ( 97890 ) on Friday October 09, 2020 @02:13AM (#60587448)

      I bought one a couple of months ago and so far I haven't used it much (for the apple content, anyway). I mainly use it for Netflix and Amazon Prime. There's precious little to watch that's from Apple that also doesn't also want me to pay more money to watch it. What's the point of paying a subscription to a service that puts a price tag on everything?!

      I think youve run into Apple's far too confusing naming scheme here...

      First, there's Apple TV: "the hardware". This is the box you connect to your TV and install apps on - like Netflix, HBO, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Youtube, games, music apps etc etc.

      Then there is Apple TV: "the app". This is just an app on your Apple TV that works as a hub across many of the video apps you have installed (notably, Netflix has chosen not to integrate), as well as their own movie store. Here, you can see recommendations, search for content across all of the services that have integrated with this hub, see new episodes of shows you are watching, continue watching content that is marked as in progress etc. As the Apple movie store is included here, you will also movies from this showing up as suggestions and search results.

      Finally, you have Apple TV+: "the service". This is the service discussed in this article. It's a streaming service like Netflix etc, except for having no third party content and no back catalog. To make everything a bit more confusing, not only are they reusing the Apple TV name for a third thing - just adding a "+" - but it also doesn't have its own app, the content just shows up in Apple TV: The app

  • I got a year free with an iPad but I wouldn't pay for it. Most of the shows I've tried to watch require another subscription which makes no sense to me. Why would I pay for a service to have to pay for another service to watch what I want?

  • We are not big TV watchers. We have Netflix mainly for kid shows and my wife and i watch occasionally a Netflix series episode after the kids go to bed. It takes us 2 months to finish a Netflix series season.
    I tried the free Apple Tv+ service that came with my Phone and I must say that in general i liked what I saw so far. Actually, were it not for the kid shows, I wouldnâ(TM)t mind switching Apple Tv+, it has enough for me (admittedly not enough for avid binge viewers) and maybe more importantly, se

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