One-year Apple TV+ trial offer getting cut down to three months

Apple TV+ launched in November 2019

Purchasers of Apple devices will continue to get a free trial of Apple TV+, but it will also soon be reduced to three months instead of a year.

Starting July 1, 2021, users who buy an eligible Apple device will get three months of Apple TV+ for free. It's the first across-the-board change to the trial offer since it was unveiled alongside the original launch of Apple TV+ in 2019.

Following a trial, users then pay $4.99 per month for Apple TV+, unless they cancel. Users who bought iPhones, iPads, or other Apple devices when Apple TV+ launched were therefore able to watch for free until November 2020.

However, Apple did then extend that trial to end in February 2021. It was presumed that Apple did so in order that even the earliest users could still be on a free trial when the second seasons of its shows began to air.

Some of those earliest subscribers had already been switched to a paid version. Apple issued refund credits to those users.

Then shortly before that extension was due to end, though, Apple extended it again. This time the trial period, even for the earliest subscribers, would take them up to the end of June 2021.

This version of the offer is still valid and users who buy — and also activate — any eligible Apple hardware on or before June 30, 2021 will get Apple TV+ free for a year. Devices bought and activated on or after July 1, 2021, will get only three months.

Apple detailed this change on its website, where it was first spotted by 9to5mac.

A third-party survey of users in late 2020 claimed that 62% of Apple TV+ users were then on the trial offer. It also claimed that some 62% did not plan to continue onto a paid subscription.

At that same late 2020 point, separate research company Statista estimated that Apple TV+ had 40 million users.

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