Apple to Reduce Apple TV+ Free Trial to Three Months From July 1

[WiseAJ]

I my case I don't see that. Ordered Disneyplus through iTunes. In the iTunes subscription page it says:

"if you cancel now, you can still access your subscription until <date>"

Thumbs up for Disney!


Apple TV+ says:
"if you cancel, .. will immediately lose acces to AppleTV+ .. You cannot reactivate this trial"

How customer unfriendly, not so Apple.

It is strange, since with iTunes Match Apple says:
"if you cancel now, you can still access your subscription until <date>".

So the policy with Apple is sometimes direct cancel, sometimes not...




Y

Disney+ wasn't a trial but an actual subscription.

Apple TV+ was a free trial offer. Once you actually start paying for a month of service you have the same capability as Disney, or any other subscription, + to cancel midcycle and retain access to it until the end.

Apple's free trials have always been this way.

 

[FindingAvalon]

Could you elaborate?

Sounds like he’s a fundy.

 

[Deguello]

It just isn't when you see the prices of the competition who have 1000s and 1000s of shows/movies/documentaries & a massive back catalogue of exclusive content.

Yeah, it is, for some people. I don’t care about thousands of shows I don’t want to watch. For All Mankind, Trying, Mythic Quest, Ted Lasso, etc. provide more value to me than hundreds or thousands of awful shows and movies. If I’m willing to pay $X for one movie, it just doesn’t make sense to say that something that provides more hours of entertainment for less money isn’t worth it.

If it’s not worth it to you, fine.

 

[Realityck]

The offer of a generous year-long free trial for ‌Apple TV+‌ has been an important part of Apple's strategy to lure in long-term subscribers by giving unfettered access to the full roster of content on the streaming service. ‌Apple TV+‌ launched with a small amount of content compared with other rival services, so it has been crucial for Apple to build goodwill and interest about the service's shows without expecting immediate returns. The company now appears to feel that the content offering has grown enough that a shorter trial will suffice going forward.

I can somewhat agree with that, but its also evident that the opt-in subscription services you see as Apple TV channels is what is making money. For anyone that has not unlinked the ATV search feature associated with other streaming apps, this ATV app is a trojan horse for monitoring your video watching preferences, so there has to be some revenue garnered from that tracking. I disable most of that in settings.

 

[kiensoy]

Wait, so a new iPhone 12 gives you the free trial? I thought it was only back when it launched for iPhone 11. I’ve never used the trial but I got an iPhone 12. Can I get 1-year trial? If so, how? I open the Apple TV app but I’m not shown with the offer.

 

[Residentsteve]

Just got an iPhone 12 mini with a free year of Apple TV just catching up with see its not that good tbh, I definitely won’t pay for it, not when I have prime/Netflix & Disney plus.

 

[markb1]

I've got too many streaming services, and this one is at the front of the line for the chopping block, as soon as my free trial ends. The stuff I've watched hasn't drawn me in, so I can take or leave second seasons, and there's really just isn't enough content for me to find stuff that really suits me.

I guess it's time for Apple TV+ to sink or swim. It will be interesting to see what happens!

 

[alexhardaker]

not only is there basically zero of interest for me on TV+, but it is hard to find what is really free to watch - at least Amazon shows me stuff that is included with Prime first inserted of having to search only to find I would have to pay to watch

There’s an Apple TV+ tab within the app now. You can also visit the channel page itself to see what is included

 

[markb1]

Wait, so a new iPhone 12 gives you the free trial? I thought it was only back when it launched for iPhone 11. I’ve never used the trial but I got an iPhone 12. Can I get 1-year trial? If so, how? I open the Apple TV app but I’m not shown with the offer.

Yes, for a new iPhone 12. But you have a limited amount of time to activate the trial. So it depends on when you got the the phone.

 

[4487549]

Churn, baby, churn...

 

[teme]

I just bought a new iPad for my mother and I'll give it as a gift in July. Is it still eligible for a one year trial, if it's purchased in June but activated in July?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Only thing of interest to me has been For All Mankind

But the seasons are so short and with a huge gap between them...If I watch next year I'll just wait until it all is released, sub for a month, watch it and be done again.

I don't see how the subscription thing works long term unless there's a huge back catalogue to always fall back on.

 

[psxp]

Not worth it in my opinion for my tastes. " Between Netflix and Disney+ and sports, I have enough content already. I'm sure a lot of people in the same boat unless they are subscribed to an apple bundle

 

[jhollington]

Has anyone ever paid for it? (apart from in a Apple one bundle)

I paid for it for a month before I bought an iPhone 11 Pro Max and got moved into the free year, which Apple has then of course kept extending. I switched to Apple One as soon as I became available last fall, but Apple has still been throwing Apple TV+ credits my way each month — I guess this month's was the last.

I plan to keep paying for it, although obviously it's baked into an Apple One bundle. Even without the bundle, however, I'd still keep it ... if there's anything in Apple One that I wouldn't pay for by itself it's probably Apple News+ 😏

 

[jhollington]

I don’t binge watch anything, but I don’t care if the whole season or whatever is available immediately. Well, I sort of don’t care: I usually will read the credits at the end but the next episode counter is a lot shorter than most credits. I don’t watch them after every show that I watch but sometimes I’m curious about who played a character or what company handled some technical detail and they put the start next episode graphics in the way of the credits or they move the credits to a small corner window and you need to click in that window before the next episode auto runs.

Yeah, I do wish the Apple TV app (not the service) had a way to turn off auto-play, as that's caught me a few times.

At least it leaves the end credits in full-screen, and simply shows a pop-up at the bottom. You can stop autoplay by swiping in any direction, or press menu to dismiss the pop-up entirely and just watch the end credits.

 

[jhollington]

So I had my free trial since launch of Nov 2019. Got all the covid extensions and share it as part of family sharing between her and I an my 16 year old. My fiancee just got a message today was the last day to claim the free year of AppleTV+.

So I cancelled my trial which immediatly removed it and she accepted hers. Now we got at least another year without having to pay for it as its the subscription shes sharing via family sharing.

Interesting... According to Apple's official terms and conditions it's not supposed to work that way...

• Only one offer per Family, regardless of number of devices purchased. You can share your Apple TV+ subscription with up to 5 other family members via Family Sharing.
• The 3 months free Apple TV+ offer is not available if you or your Family have previously accepted the Apple TV+ one year free offer.

(The wording has always been basically the same — the most recent version just replaces "one year free" with "3 months free" at the beginning of that second paragraph).

 

[dlondon]

I can understand why Apple is ending the one year offer but it would be good if the three month trial was a three month credit with purchases and that these credits could be stacked. This would reward customers that purchase additional devices. Through work and personal products, I have added four eligible products to my account in the last 12 months but only received the one trial.

That said, I managed to have two one year trials on the same account (I think because the first year was added retrospectively after I was charged for one month when I thought I was signing up for the trial). Two years of Apple TV+ for adding five devices to my account is bad I guess.

 

[alexhardaker]

Yes, happened to me with the 3 months arcade trial. I never thought they would end it immediately. Some one in the household was not amused.... Apple even automatically disables the pre renew warning you can get, you have to activate this manually if you can find it. This is the behaviour of marketing led companies who trust a lot of people will forget to stop their renewal in time "because it is a service to the customer not loosing their subscription". And so maximise profit. It should be forbidden!

Can you get pre renew warnings? Where? To be honest, I’ve forgotten to cancel a couple of my subscriptions (Apple and non-Apple ones) through the subscriptions section within settings on iOS and I’ve requested refunds on the same day it renewed. Apple approved the requests within a couple of days.

 

[jhollington]

Also, there are ZERO ads. What other $5 a month streaming service with quality shows is there that doesn't bombard you with 2 to three segments of 2 minute ads for every title you watch.

To be fair, I wouldn't quite say there are zero ads... Apple has started dropping promos for other upcoming Apple TV+ shows on the pre-roll for existing shows. Mind you, those are also still very easily skippable, so may it's not entirely fair to really count them as "ads." 😏

 

[jhollington]

Can you get pre renew warnings? Where? To be honest, I’ve forgotten to cancel a couple of my subscriptions (Apple and non-Apple ones) through the subscriptions section within settings on iOS and I’ve requested refunds on the same day it renewed. Apple approved the requests within a couple of days.

I get renewal warnings via email for all of my quarterly and annual subscriptions, although not necessarily my monthly ones. I guess Apple figures that you probably know what you're paying for on a monthly basis, but you might forget about things that recur less frequently.

I'm sure these can be turned off, but I've honestly never looked for that setting. They seem to be on by default, though...

 

[jhollington]

Isn’t it really odd that you get free subscription with a phone and iPad but not an Apple TV?

Uh, you do... From Apple's terms and conditions:

Eligible devices

1. • Any new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac capable of running the latest iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, or macOS, from Apple or an Apple authorized reseller.

It's essentially any device that can be used to watch Apple TV+. The Apple Watch is out for obvious reasons, and devices like AirPods that can merely be used to listen to Apple TV+ don't count either 😏

 

[jhollington]

Disney+ wasn't a trial but an actual subscription.

Apple TV+ was a free trial offer. Once you actually start paying for a month of service you have the same capability as Disney, or any other subscription, + to cancel midcycle and retain access to it until the end.

Apple's free trials have always been this way.

This. It makes perfect sense if you think about it... If you've already paid for something, then you get to keep it for the period that you paid for. Otherwise, Apple would have to start issuing pro-rated refunds.

A free trial is free. Neither Apple nor Disney owe you anything if you decide to cancel, and they probably don't want to keep you on the books as a subscriber if you've elected to stop using it.

In fact, there may even be a valid fiscal reason in Apple's case, since it actually does allocate part of the profits from every Apple device that's used to claim a free year. From Apple's internal accounting perspective, you're actually getting a discount on your iPhone, iPad, or whatever other Apple device you're using, and using the difference to pay for Apple TV+.

So, if somebody cancels their free trial, the beancounters basically get to move whatever's left back into the appropriate hardware category. I don't know if Apple actually does this or not, but it certainly could, as the accounting and reporting regulations require that it reflect the revenue in each of its product categories as accurately as possible. If somebody no longer wants to be a subscriber to Apple TV+ — even for free — then that shouldn't be reported as revenue in Apple's "Services" category.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If Apple drops the hammer on free access, I think they are going to learn the hard way how “not compelling” their offering still is.

 

[jhollington]

If Apple drops the hammer on free access, I think they are going to learn the hard way how “not compelling” their offering still is.

I'd be pretty surprised if Apple doesn't already have a pretty good read on this. It obviously knows how many people are actively watching Apple TV+, and what it is that they're watching.

Regular viewers are much more likely to keep paying for a subscription — even more so that it's now available as part of an Apple One bundle — and Apple has to have a pretty good idea of how many potential paying subscribers it actually has. Sure, there are probably a few regular viewers who won't convert to paying subscribers, but I suspect that's a minority.

The folks who are sitting on the free promotional offer and barely watching any of the content aren't really doing much more than artificially bolstering the company's services revenue. However, they're also pulling down the numbers in Apple's hardware revenue categories, since that money gets sent over to "Services."

Apple's not completely stupid — it's obviously looked at the numbers and realized that it's time to stop giving something away that enough people now appear to be willing to pay for.

 

[warpdrive]

the numbers that somebody posted earlier about 62% being on the trial seems a bit low to me. I guess we'll find out eventually once the extended free trials end. I would have guessed that at least 80% of the people are on some form of trial, but obviously Apple wants to find out how sticky their service is.

I plan on buying the iMac for my wife in July and then in the fall I'm getting the new iPhone, so that gives me 6 months of grace.

Then I'm dropping the service at least for 6 months. Not adding anything beyond Netflix, Disney and Prime.

I enjoyed a few series (Mankind, Jacob, Trying, Mythic Quest, Dickinson, even See) but that's literally about 6 weeks of material tops.