TL;DR
- Apple TV Plus has a promotion planned for January 4 and 5.
- The details are largely a mystery, but the tagline on the social media posts is “See for yourself.”
- One possibility is that the streaming service could be made available to non-subscribers for the weekend.
Update, December 30, 2024 (11:08 AM ET): With January right around the corner, Apple only had time to tease us for so long, and the company has finally stepped forward to confirm its plans for this special event. Over on Instagram, Apple shares that Apple TV Plus will be free to stream this coming weekend, January 4 through January 5. If you haven’t yet, go ahead and install the Apple TV Plus app now so you don’t miss any of your free weekend.
Original article, December 27, 2024 (01:38 PM ET): As the holiday season winds up, streaming services will be brainstorming how they can keep you watching well into 2025. Apple TV Plus certainly has something planned, with a mysterious social media campaign promoting an event on January 4 and 5. The phrase being used as a lure is “See for yourself.”
Beyond this tagline, almost no further details are disclosed by the social media posts. Whether it’s a noteworthy promotion or not remains to be seen, but Apple certainly wants you to think it’s something big, posting a new version of the teaser each day for the last three days on X alone.
An equally ambiguous phrase accompanies each image. So far, they have been “Save the date,” “Stay tuned,” and “Keep your eyes peeled.”
While this could be nothing more than a big reveal of new shows launching, one possibility is that Apple TV Plus will be available for non-subscribers on those days. There has been discussion to this effect online. Apart from the fact that the event in question runs across a whole weekend, the phrase “See for yourself” implies that people who aren’t already paying for the service might get a chance to try it.
Since this is only speculation, we can only speculate further as to what form this might take. Perhaps only certain shows will be available for subscription-free viewing or just the first couple of episodes of each show. Maybe everyone will get unrestricted access to the service for the whole weekend, with Apple hoping two days of bingeing will entice new users to subscribe.
Apple TV Plus is usually $9.99 per month, but it’s worth pointing out that there’s a free seven-day trial available when you sign up anyway. Giving away an effective two-day free trial that doesn’t require you to hand over your billing information wouldn’t be a big deal to Apple in this context.
