How to activate apple tv free year

Apple TV+, the streaming service from Apple, arrived at the end of 2019 so it’s been here a while now, but it’s only recently come into its own as more and more people have discovered the shows on offer. Shows including Ted Lasso and For All Mankind, as well as movies like Greyhound, staring Tom Hanks. You can even watch a couple MLB games every Friday night.

Apple TV+ costs $6.99/£6.99 (until October 2022 it was $4.99/£4.99 a month). This is still less than other streaming services, but it also offers less content than many other streaming services, lacking the huge back-catalogues of films and TV shows on offer from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or Disney+. If you want to learn more about what you can watch on Apple TV+ read everything you can watch on Apple TV+, which also includes the new shows that are coming to the service. 

You might want to watch one of the shows being broadcast by Apple, but the monthly subscription may not appeal to you. Wondering how you can get Apple TV+ for free? We’ll run through your options.

One such option is the various companies are bundling a free Apple TV+ subscription with their services. For example, there is the option to get a free year subscription to Apple TV+ with T-Mobile (if you live in the US), you can also get 6 months free Apple TV+ with a PlayStation 5. Find out more about these deals below.

Watch first episodes on Apple TV+ for free

There are a number of ways in which you can watch shows on Apple TV+ for free. Apple offers limited time trials (discussed below), and the service also allows you to watch the first episode of many shows for free. In fact there several dozen episodes available to watch for free including the first episodes of Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, See, Trying, and more.

Get 7 days of Apple TV+ free

If you want to watch a show, and have plenty of time in the immediate future, you could activate your free seven-day trial and binge-watch it!

You can subscribe to Apple TV+ on Apple’s website here, or via the Apple TV app on your device.

The 7-day trial will automatically auto-renew into a monthly subscription though, so you will need to be prepared to cancel within the week if you don’t want to be out of pocket.

The 7-day trial might sound attractive if you think you can watch a whole series in a week. But make sure the series is complete, as Apple typically adds new episodes on a weekly basis.

The easiest way to cancel a subscription go to Settings and click on the Apple ID section on your iPhone. Tap on Subscriptions. Locate Apple TV+ in the Active list and then Cancel Subscription. More details on how to cancel your subscription below. Note that you won’t find Apple TV+ in the Active list until the trial ends. See: How to cancel a subscription on iPhone, iPad or Mac for more help.

That’s all very well if you can watch the whole season in one week, but what if you think you might need a bit more time?

Get three months of Apple TV+ for free with an Apple hardware purchase

You can get three months of Apple TV+ when you purchase a iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac from Apple. You just need to redeem the offer within 90 days.

Once the three months is up the $6.99/£6.99/month subscription will start immediately – but you can cancel this

Unfortunately this offer is not available if you or your Family have previously accepted an Apple TV+ 1 year free offer.

Extend the three free months to eight months

As we mention above, you can get three months of Apple TV+ for free with an Apple hardware purchase. If you purchase an Apple TV you can also get a $50 or £40 voucher, which you could use to pay for even more months of Apple TV+ at $4.99/£4.99 a month. See Apple offers a free $50/£40 gift card with any Apple TV purchase.

Get 6 months of Apple TV+ for free with PlayStation 5

If you are lucky enough to already own a PlayStation 5 – or if you manage to buy one (read where to buy the PlayStation 5 for help with that) you can get a free six-month subscription to Apple TV+. This offer will run until 22 July 2022. If you have a PlayStation 4, you can get a free three-month trial.

What you need:

• You’ll need a PS5 or new PS4, a PlayStation Network account, and an Apple ID.
• The offer is valid in the UK and the US as well as Argentina, Australia, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, and South Africa.

We can confirm that even if you have already enjoyed Apple’s free trial of Apple TV+ you are still able to get 6-months free with this PlayStation offer.

Here’s how to claim the PS5 offer:

You should be able to find the Apple TV app in the PS5 search bar. If you can’t find it search in the media section under All Apps. On PS4, look in the TV and Video section.

1. Download the app.
2. Open the app and follow the instructions.
3. Sign in with your Apple ID.

Get 12 months of Apple TV+ for free with T-Mobile US

T-Mobile currently offers Apple TV+ free to new and existing customers for a year, if you have a qualifying plan (most plans qualify).

Customers can redeem the freebie by signing into the T-Mobile app or their T-Mobile account online. Those on Sprint (now owned by T-Mobile) can redeem the offer by going to promotions.t-mobile.com and using the code 2021APPLETVP1. Magenta customers can also redeem the offer this way. More details here.

This offer does stack with current subscriptions and free offers! T-Mobile will stop giving out codes on June 30, 2022, and the codes will stop working after June 31, 2022.

Get 3 months of Apple TV+ for free if you buy an Apple product

It used to be the case that if you bought a qualifying new Apple product you could get a whole year of Apple TV+ for free.

Now that the “one year free” deal has concluded Apple is offering three months of Apple TV+ for free to anyone with a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac.

It is necessary to claim the deal within 90 days of setting up your new device.

Eligible devices include any new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac. Apple Watch, HomePod, AirPods, and other Apple devices do not qualify. In short, your device qualifies if it’s a new Apple device that can actually run the TV app and watch Apple TV+ content.

Get 3 months of Apple TV+ for free with Currys (UK)

Currys in the UK is also offering three months free Apple TV+ but in this case you don’t have to buy an Apple product. It’s a benefit of Currys Perks, details here.

This is Currys’ new membership service, which will give members access to exclusive discounts, offers on top brands, partner benefits, and chances to win prizes.

Get 3 months of Apple TV+ for free through Best Buy (US)

Those in the US can get three months of Apple TV+ for free through Best Buy, without even making any special qualifying purchase. Just go to the Best Buy Apple TV+ promo page, hit Add to Cart, and check out. Follow the prompts to access your digital download, which is a code you can enter for three free months when you first sign up for Apple TV+. The code will only work for new subscribers.

This code has to be used during signup, so it’s probably the one you should use first, before redeeming other offers like the free 3 months for a qualifying Apple product.

Get a student subscription to Apple Music including TV+

Another way to get Apple TV+ for free is to sign up for a student subscription to Apple Music. If you qualify as a student in Higher Education you will be able to get Apple Music for half price, and as of summer 2021 Apple has been bundling free Apple TV+ subscriptions with student subscriptions to Apple Music, which costs £4.99/$4.99.

Head to this Apple page for more details.

How to claim your free trial of Apple TV+ from Apple

Having made a qualifying purchase, or decided to try out the free 7-day trial, all you need to do is:

1. Make sure the device is running the latest software.
2. Open the TV app on your new Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.
3. Sign in to your Apple ID.
4. Click on the show you want to watch—you should see the option to Enjoy Three Months Free. Note: This will only appear if you have purchased a new device, otherwise you will only see the 7-day trial offer.
5. Click Continue.
6. Confirm that you want to activate the free trial.
7. You will see a message that the free trial will commence immediately and will run until the end of the trial at which point it will renew for a monthly subscription. If you want to cancel the subscription you can do so.

You have 90 days from buying a new device to start the free year’s subscription, so as long as you purchased your new Apple product recently then you should be ok to activate your trial. Also, if you stop the free trial before it ends you can’t restart it.

What if you are thinking of buying a new Apple device later? Will you be able to switch from a subscription to the free trial? We think that the way to do this would be to cancel your subscription before signing up again via the three-month trial.

You can also share a subscription to TV+ with six family members—yourself and five others.

To do this you all need to be part of the same Family Sharing group.

By linking your Apple accounts together under the Family Sharing group you will all be able to:

• Share music purchased from the iTunes Store
• Share access to Apple Music (as long as you have a family Apple Music subscription)
• Share apps bought from the App Store (in app purchases can’t be shared though)
• Share Apple Books
• Access games on Apple’s Arcade gaming platform (with a subscription)
• Share a News+ subscription
• Share an iCloud storage plan

One of your family members will need to be the family organiser, who basically chooses who joins the group, and has to put up their bank details to pay for any purchases.

It’s supposed to be family members in the same household. While you could set this up with other ‘family’ members we think the frustration of having all the payments for everything going through the ‘organiser’s’ bank account could make this a hard sell. However, if does at least mean that you and your partner don’t both have to subscribe to the service in order to watch shows on both of your iPhones.

How to cancel an Apple TV+ subscription

So that’s a few ways to get Apple TV+ for free, at least for a short time, or by sharing a subscription with a family member.

However, we think the best way to get access to Apple TV+ is to subscribe as usual but just cancel at any time. You could watch everything you want this month and then stop subscribing next month and it would only cost you £6.99/$6.99. Sign up for Apple TV+ here.

To cancel your Apple TV+ subscription follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the Apple ID section at the top with your name.
3. Tap on Subscriptions.
4. Now tap on any subscription you wish to cancel (in this case Apple TV+).
5. On the next page tap on Cancel Subscription.

Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld almost two decades ago. 

Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.