It’s now after Friday’s midnight PST. Where’s the free weekend for ATV+? I don’t it so far. :(
It’s free January 4 to 5. It’s not January 4.
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Uh, Enjoy Apple TV+ for free the first weekend of 2025 - Apple TV+ Press says 3-5. :/
From MacRumors…
“Apple’s free viewing event will begin on Friday evening, starting at 5:00 p.m. local time in countries where Apple TV+ is available.”
And a strange observation: AppleTV+ has its own press release webpage that is separate from the main press and PR section on apple.com . I wonder if this is an indicator of how siloed every part of Apple is from other parts of Apple.
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Am I the only one who found the promo video to be a bit dystopic? Creepy? I’m not sure exactly what is the right way to describe my reaction.
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Ah, 5 PM in the time zone. Uh, what time does it end on Sunday night then? 11:59:59 PM?
It’s 1:31pm here and yet, it appears I can already stream all kinds of tv+ content for free here. Go figure.
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Awesome! Confirmed working here too in USA’s PST. :) Uh, when does it end on Sunday night though? Also, where is my added to see TV+ list at in iPhone’s iOS v18.2’s TV app? I must be blind as a n00b. :(
If Apple includes Puerto Rico in its definition of USA, as it should, at 1 PM Pacific it was 5 PM in P.R. . So perhaps as soon as a region of the USA hit 5 PM, AppleTV+ opened its promotion to the entire country.
I fail to see the big deal about this weekend. You need to provide an Apple ID and credit card number for possible future purchases. It appears to be little different from the free 7-day trial that Apple offers to new or long-ago subscribers.
It only benefits those who recently let their subscriptions lapse or lack the self-discipline to cancel before the trial period expires.
Apple offers trials of various lengths for purchasers of major Apple products, some phone providers offer free or discounted subscriptions with some of their phone plans, and Best Buy offers free 3-month subscriptions for new subscribers, with no purchase required.
I see very few people for whom the weekend offer provides any advantage over these alternatives.
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Um, ATV+'s videos (e.g., Masters of the Air) are currently free to watch. It didn’t ask me to enter payment information like earlier today for its free trial that I didn’t want because it wanted payment information.
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So, you were not asked to provide credit card information? That’s different from my experience.
I’m already a subscriber via my primary email account. However, when I tried to access the 2nd video of a series via a device where I was not registered, I was asked to sign in. I used another email address with an Apple account and was asked for credit card information. At that point, I stopped the process.
I know that you don’t need to worry about canceling after the weekend–you will just lose access. However, I see little difference between that and canceling a subscription after 5 days on a 7-day trial.
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Yep. I remember a few years, I tried to start my free six months trial because of my new iPhone 12 mini. Well, it wanted my payment data even though I had gift card balance! And they still did that earlier today before the free (long) weekend. No thanks, Apple!
Right now, I was able to watch any ATV+‘s created contents (not non-Apple’s video contents like Dreamworks’ Antz) for free. I am going to binge watch Masters of the Air miniseries soon. I hope I can finish it by Monday! Apple has better not end this free (long) weekend early before Monday’s midnight PST in USA.
I didn’t have to supply any CC information.
The only difference was that the buttons that usually say something like “Try free for 7 days” now just say “Play”.
Although this trial supposedly serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever according to posters here, I actually made use of it. And was promptly disappointed. Lots of CGI can’t make up for lack of story or dialogue. If you’ve enjoyed Band of Brothers or The Pacific, don’t expect anything from Masters of the Air. Compared to those two, this IMHO is garbage. Eerily familiar though. Back in the day I got the same vibe from Greyhound. Lots of CGI to distract from what is otherwise such a shallow picture. Not even the great Tom Hanks could save it.
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I didn’t provide any payment information. On both my ATV and my Mac (via the TV app), I just needed to log in with my Apple ID and all the free-weekend content was streamable. I did not go through any kind of sign-up process.
Which is what I’d expected, because you’ve always been able to stream some free content (typically trailers and the first episodes of some highly-promoted series) without an account.
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I just checked again at the tv.apple.com website. There was no need to sign in with any id to access video on the site.
I must have been accessing a cached version yesterday.
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What? You don’t have to sign in? Uh, it asked me to sign in when I tried Watch Holston’s Pick - Silo (Season 1, Episode 2) - Apple TV+.
You need to log in with your Apple ID. What you don’t need to do is create a trial/paid account for this weekend.
I assume @aforkosh was already logged in for some reason (I wonder if it uses the same login cookies as the rest of Apple’s web sites), so it didn’t ask. That was the case for me using my Apple TV and the TV app on my Mac - both were already logged in because I’ve used them to play free videos (especially Apple events).
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Update:
So, I opened tv.apple.com in a browser I don’t usually use. I ignored a Sign In a bubble in the upper right corner. I then selected a non-first episode of a show (the first episode is always free to anyone). When I clicked the button to watch it, a Sign-In box appeared. I signed in with an Apple ID I created long ago to access Apple Communities when my primary ID did not work. That ID had no payment information associated with it. So, the next box asked me for a credit card for the ID and assured me it was not asking for any payment now. At that point, I exited.
So, my previous post about not requiring an ID was wrong. I believe that if you EVER provided payment information in connection with an Apple ID, you won’t be asked to do so now. However, as this was a clean ID, Apple wanted to complete the profile.
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My experience is that a lot of digital media services (music, movies, books, etc.) require payment info for free content because of region restrictions imposed by publishers. Billing addresses or card issuer country of origin are used to assign geographic locations to users.
Two workarounds I’ve used in the past to avoid storing banking details on an ongoing basis are to use a disposable credit card number with a 1-month validity period—note that not all card issuers offer this feature—or to delete my registered card after I gain access to the content.
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