Apple TV Plus is getting another extension of its free trial offer – so if you’ve purchased a new product from Apple since the launch of the video streaming service in November 2019, like the iPhone 12, you can maintain free access until June this year.
The offer originally gave Apple’s new hardware owners a free Apple TV Plus subscription that would last until November 2020, but in October, Apple extended the scheme to continue until February 2021. Now it has increased again to June.
This means that not only Apple’s new adopters will have several months of free streaming, but anyone who accepts the offer earlier could end up with more than a year and a half of Apple TV Plus without paying an additional penny.
Not only that, but anyone who was eligible for the offer, but already pays the usual $ 5 monthly subscription cost, will get their money back by June. Anyone qualified to take advantage of the extension will be notified via email in the coming weeks, although they do not need to do anything to activate it.
Apple has given no particular reason for this latest extension. However, we note that several major releases are coming to Apple TV Plus in February, including Rob McElhenney’s comedy “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet” and Tom Holland’s police drama “Cherry”.
Apple may simply want them to get as many views as possible, both for the platform’s own viewing numbers and to act as effective ads for potential subscribers who couldn’t subscribe otherwise.
That said, Apple TV Plus struggled throughout 2020 to attract new viewers; a report stated that in June, only 7% of U.S. households had a subscription, compared with 73% who subscribed to Netflix. And considering that this free offer has been in effect all year, what Apple really expects from the latter extension is an unanswered question.