When Apple launched Apple TV+ in 2019, iPad, iPhone, and Mac owners got a free year of the service. Can they get another year free if they buy something again?
Most things cost money, so it can be really nice to learn if you’ve managed to score something for free. That’s what happened in 2019 back when Apple launched its own take on Netflix, the streaming service known as Apple TV+. Initially a handful of programs, Apple TV+ has grown over the past year, and now features several originals, some of which have big name stars in them.
But we’d hazard a guess that many subscribers of the Apple TV+ service over the past year haven’t had to pay for it, at least not in the same way they might with Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Stan, or other services. Each of these services charges a monthly fee, and Apple TV+ does too, but for its first year, Apple TV+ was free for many.
If you had purchased an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, or a Mac in some form (iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, Mac Pro) from September 10 onwards, you had a year of the service bundled in for free. Launched back in November 2019, that year of free service may be running out for subscribers, who may be eager to find another way to keep its service going without paying.
Can you just do the same and upgrade to a new device, extending Apple TV+ with another free year?
Will buying a new Apple gadget get you more free Apple TV+?
Unfortunately, buying a new Apple gadget won’t give your Apple account a second free year of Apple TV+.
As part of Apple TV+’s terms and conditions, the free year of the service is treated as a trial, and the free one year of the service is only valid once per account. The same is true even if you have family members under your account, and means that your partner or kids can’t just add a new free trial scored from a new device to your account either.
It means that even if you’re thinking about buying the new iPad or a new iPhone for yourself, and you’ve used the free year once, you won’t get a second free year from that purchase.
Essentially, once you’ve used a free year of Apple TV+ on your account, you can’t get a second free year applied to that same account, and you’ll revert to the $7.99 monthly cost for the service.
Apple is extending the free year for a limited time
While you can’t just go out and buy any number of the new Apple gadgets out this year to score one more free year of Apple TV+, Apple will be extending its subscriptions for Apple TV+ subscribers who signed up in November, with the freebie extending to the end of January 2021, something we’ve heard should apply locally, as well.
It means if you do presently subscribe to Apple TV+ under a free account, you’ll likely get a few months for free. And if you presently pay the $7.99 monthly subscription, you should get a credit for the few months, with an email informing you about what’s going on.
Is there any way to score the free year of Apple TV+ a second time?
Apple’s terms and conditions are pretty clear about what you can and can’t do, but there does appear to be a slight loophole, though it might be a touch inconvenient depending on how desperately you want another free year of Apple TV+.
While Apple is very specific that the offer can’t be combined with other free trials and that it can only be redeemed once per Family Sharing group, it does seem to imply the trial applies to one account.
That means you could theoretically score another free year of Apple TV with an Apple gadget if you applied it to a new Apple account. We’ve not tried this, but it might mean either having to use a new account for your apps, or if you have an Apple TV, using the menu to switch accounts for Apple TV+
