Why Apple TV+ is offering a free weekend of binge-watching

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple TV+ is hoping people will make a dent in the Strategic Popcorn Reserve by bingeing its streaming TV and movies for free this weekend in what experts are calling a canny promotion.

The two-day offer this Saturday and Sunday is intended to give viewers a taste of what’s behind the Apple paywall and get them hooked, ready to fork over $9.99 a month in the U.S.

Michael D. Smith, a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said the two-day window is not too short to ignore and not too long to satisfy all demand.

“This is not ‘I’m going to let you binge-watch this over the course of three or four days or a week or a couple weeks and then maybe you won’t subscribe next month,’” he said. “This is, ‘I’m giving you two days to explore my catalog. And I’m hoping that you’re going to find something in there that maybe you’ll binge. Maybe you’ll have time to binge the first six episodes, but it’s so cool you’ve got to come back and you’re going to be willing to subscribe to come back.’”

While entertainment companies often use promotions and discounts to lure new customers, Apple TV+’s pitch has no catches, like entering personal info or credit card numbers. All you need is an Apple ID, which is free and which many people already have from the days of 99-cent song downloads.

What can you see behind the paywall? The Emmy-winning “Ted Lasso” and “The Morning Show” and other buzzy series like “Silo,” “Shrinking,” “Severance,” “Bad Sisters,” “Slow Horses,” “Disclaimer” and “Presumed Innocent.”

Movies include “Fly Me to the Moon,” “The Instigators,” “Spirited,” “Ghosted,” “Argylle,” Palmer,” “Napoleon” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Smith suspects that by the end of the weekend, Apple will have lots of data to sharpen its approach to new customers and returning ones, like himself. Apple will learn, for example, what genres are hot, which shows attract viewers and how long people spend watching.

Smith will be logging in to watch “Ted Lasso” with his son but also wants to check out “Severance” with his daughter. Two days likely won't be enough to watch both to the end.

“It’s kind of like a mall, right? I’ve got an anchor tenant. For me, it’s ‘Ted Lasso.’ That gets me to the mall. And once I’m at the mall, I’m going to wander around and discover some other stuff there. And they’re hoping that the two days isn’t long enough for me to shop,” he said. “My guess it's going to pay off.”

There is some evidence that long bingeing widows don’t help streamers build customers. A 2020 study by Miguel Godinho de Matos and Pedro Ferreira for the Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics at Carnegie Mellon found that binge-watching over several weeks reduces the post-trial likelihood of paid subscriptions.

Apple's weekend deal is clearly an attempt to shake up its numbers. As of October 2024, it had an estimated 25 million subscribers, making it the eighth most popular streaming service by subscribers. Netflix, in No. 1, has 282.7 million.

“Apple TV+ never really truly took off, even though they do have a series of really high-quality TV shows,” says Bo “Bobby” Zhou, a business professor at the University of Maryland. “They are trying to offer a promotional period to let a wider viewer base sample their content in the hope that some of them will be converted.”

Other streamers are also offering deals, like Hulu's free 30-day trial, Starz's $2-a-month plan or Peacock's three-month trial for Samsung Galaxy owners. If viewers miss the Apple TV+ weekend offer, the streamer already has a free 7-day trial promotion going. It has lots of other offers though Target, Best Buy, Samsung and for buyers of Apple devices, too.

Jared Newman, a technology journalist who publishes the newsletter Cord Cutter Weekly, said the promotion seems to be part of a big push by Apple to up its subscribers. The streamer recently agreed to be distributed through Amazon and there are signals it may want to experiment with an ad-supported tier.

“They really need to get their numbers up and need to get more people on board whatever way possible,” he said. “It may be just another way to test the waters of who would access their service if they didn’t have to pay for it.”

Zhou has seen the industry change from single paid downloads to unlimited access to subscribers and anticipates a future with different tiers of subscribers — say, one free episode for non-subscribers and a full season for diehard fans. Anything to get some buzz.

“I think the battle amongst tech giants is all about content differentiation,” he said. “'How can I capture consumers' attention?' Because attention is the most valuable asset of anyone.”