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Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon Jennifer Aniston speak at the Apple Spring Event on March 25, 2019.
Source: Apple
Apple will extend some Apple TV + subscriptions in a one-year free trial for an additional three months, the company confirmed to CNBC on Thursday.
When Apple TV + launched last fall, Apple included a free one-year subscription with the purchase of an Apple product, immediately increasing the number of people who could watch the streaming service.
The first of those trial subscriptions previously expired in early November, meaning that people on the one-year trial who hadn’t canceled would be charged $ 4.99 per month for the streaming service.
Now, subscribers whose trial expires before February will get an additional three months of Apple TV + 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 until March 1, when billing begins.
Apple has not disclosed 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 its launch last November. Netflix has more than 190 million subscribers worldwide, it said in July. But unlike those services, Apple TV + doesn’t have a backlog of reruns.
While the early reviews for Apple TV + were mixed, some titles have received critical acclaim, with “The Morning Show,” a launch title, receiving multiple Emmy nominations and winning one.
Apple TV + is part of Apple’s services business, which is a growing focus of investors and accounted for 22% of the company’s sales in the quarter ending in June. Last month, Apple announced several packages called Apple One, which tie Apple TV + to other Apple paid subscriptions, such as Apple Music, iCloud storage and Apple Arcade game service.
