Wesley Hilliard
The one-year free trial of Apple TV+ was set to end for many users on November 1, but Apple may be getting ready to extend all existing trials to February 2021.
Apple TV+ launched on Nov. 1, 2019, which means that those who were there for day one of the free trial would soon start paying. Apple has announced that they will be extending the free trial to the end of February 2021 for all users.
This means that those who started the free trial between November 2019 and January 2020 will receive some extra months — up to three — free. Anyone who signed up for the service prior to Nov. 1, 2020, will receive $4.99 in store credit through February, according to Variety.
Apple is giving many of of us a break on TV+. Because 2020.
— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) October 8, 2020
Basically, up to 3 months free.
If you got the free year back in November of 2019, it'll run through end-of January now.
Same if you paid for an annual plan.
If you're on a monthly plan, you $4.99 through January.
Simply, Apple is giving everyone an additional three months free of Apple TV+, likely due to the effects of coronavirus slowing production of their original series.
Season two of "Dickinson" won't premiere until January 8, and For All Mankind received a trailer with no date. Apple offering a renewed free trial will enable users to catch up on old series and watch the premiere of season two before having to pay again.
Those paying annual rates will have three months added to the back end, and those paying monthly rates will have that amount refunded as store credit to the account. It isn't clear how this dovetails with the Apple One bundle roll-out that is going to happen "soon," according to Apple.
Those who started the free trial between January 31 and today will have a one year free trial with no additional time. The only people not affected by this change are those who never started a free trial that are also not paying for the service.
Apple TV+ is available to watch across all Apple platforms, on the web, and via some smart TV brands. The service costs $4.99 per month or $50 per year. Apple TV+ is also bundled with every tier of Apple One, which is set to launch later in 2020.
Updated with confirmation from Apple.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
11 Comments
Any word on whether the free trial offer will continue with new purchases made now?
Apple should be practical and just extend the 12 months free with a hardware purchase. Given the (Low) amount of content available, free with hardware purchase is the right price and clearly will be for a long time. If it did extend the free that way though, take up of Apple One might be not what Apple wants.
Just FYI. I haven't bought a new Apple device since October 2017 and was surprised to see that I qualify for a new year. And I just checked last month!
So "greedy Apple" is being very lenient with us here.
How do you find out when the free year expires? I don’t pay for AppleTV+ but have access to it. Does buying AirPods count toward free year or is it only bigger purchases like iPhone or Mac?