If you’re not getting what you need from Netflix, Stan, or any of the other streaming services and you’re keen to give Apple’s a try, a few shows are now available for free streaming.
When you’re stuck at home with nothing to do, it makes sense to turn to the world of streaming media. Between the paid and free services, there’s certainly no shortage of selections out there, and depending on which companies you normally give your money to, what you can watch can vary wildly.
Between the paid options in Australia of Stan, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HayU, YouTube Premium, Kayo, 10 All Access, and Foxtel, as well as the free options from TV broadcasters such as ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, and Ten’s free “10Play” (distinct from the paid “All Access” service), Aussies indeed have choices.
However there’s one we missed out on, and it might be because for most people to have tried it, they’d typically would have bought an Apple device in the past year.
Apple’s own streaming service launched last year, and for the first year, the service was free if you bought a new iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or Apple TV. Essentially, if you bought something with the Apple TV app on the device, you got access for a year free, otherwise it was a cost of $7.99 per month.
While you might have just suddenly learned that from reading that paragraph — if you bought one of those recently, you might want to check out the Apple TV app right now — Apple is also opening the borders of its app service a little more, offering a selection of its programs free to all users.
You won’t have to pay anything, and all you’ll really need is an Apple ID, the sort of which you might use to buy iTunes songs or other apps, which anyone can get. However from this weekend, Apple’s Free For Everyone page will host a selection of Apple’s original programming for free, as well as on the app on various platforms.
It means that whether you’re on a PC or a Mac — or if you have a recent Samsung smart TV or LG smart TV with the Apple integration — you’ll find the Apple TV+ service is offering free shows to watch, including Little America, Servant, For All Mankind, Dickinson, Snoopy in Space, Helpsters, and Ghostwriter, as well as the feature film The Elephant Queen.
Apple has said its free selection is available for a limited time, but hasn’t said quite how long that is. We’ve asked, but our guess is it should be in place for a month or two, and is likely serving as a form of free trial for people keen to see what Apple’s service has to offer beyond the seven-day trial the $7.99 streaming service normally offers, particularly since so many of us are at home right now.
