Skip to main content

Apple TV+ shows and movies will be free to stream for three days

The streamer has a limited library, but has managed to produce a consistently high quality of programming.

By Joe Allen Dec 30, 2024 4:55 PM

The cast of Ted Lasso — Apple TV+

As anyone with an Apple TV+ subscription will tell you, there are plenty of great movies and TV shows available on the streamer. Unfortunately, at $9.99/mo., the cost of a subscription is just too rich for some people’s blood.

Apple is apparently hoping to bag an entirely new group of subscribers by making all of its shows and movies free for the first weekend of 2025. From Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, everything on Apple TV+ will be streamable for free with an Apple ID and password. That means that users can watch everything from Severance to Ted Lasso for free for a limited time, with the rather obvious goal of enticing users to sign up for a paid membership to the streamer.

Recommended Videos

Apple TV+ first launched in November of 2019, and does not disclose how many subscribers it has.

While Apple’s library is more limited than many of its streaming competitors, it has been known for its ability to churn out a consistently high quality of movies and TV shows, including the Oscar-winner CODA as well as other well-regarded series like Dickinson, Slow Horses, and Silo, which are set in a variety of different genres.

Given that Apple remains primarily a technology company that also just happens to have a streaming service, Apple TV+ has never been the company’s only or best way to make money. Still, it seems like they’re looking to see some growth out of the streaming service, perhaps timed loosely to line up with the second season premiere of Severance later in the month. That show has long been one of the streamer’s most well-regarded.

Joe Allen is a freelance writer at Digital Trends, where he covers Movies and TV. He frequently writes streaming… Read Full Bio

Topics

Streaming

Elevate your elegance: Choosing your first cigar

Face, Head, Person

Earlier this year, I was strolling the streets of New York and ended up sitting in the Carnegie Club with an Old Fashioned in one hand and a cigar in the other while My Way by Frank Sinatra played from a speaker flanking leather-bound books behind the couch I had been using as my perch. It was my first cigar, but it led to a slight obsession that recently found me on the back deck of a lodge in Kenya, staring at Mount Kilimanjaro and smoking a stick while giraffes meandered by. Admittedly, there has been no intention in my budding hobby; I am aimlessly choosing the cigars that look good (the ones that look like those smoked by Arnold or Stallone in the movies, obviously). But I have decided to approach these in a new way, with a little help from my friends over at La Aurora, who graciously decided to navigate my ignorance with some info compiled by Brand Manager John Gaglio, with input from Master Blender Manuel Ynoa, CEO Ed McKenna, and Brand Manager Elvis Batista.

What to look for in your first cigar

FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Is Uglifying the Beautiful Game With $20 Billion Plot — But the Global Soccer Community’s Punching Back

People, Person, Crowd

For the better part of two decades, perhaps even more, corruption has allegedly run rampant within FIFA. Sepp Blatter, in particular, became the face of alleged extortion schemes, and he operated with impunity while at the helm of the organization for 17 years, from 1998 until his forced resignation in 2015 amid an FBI corruption probe. He’s banned for life from all football-related FIFA activities. If you’re new to the organization’s alleged deep connection to corruption, Netflix offers a brilliant 2022 documentary, FIFA Uncovered. In that documentary, Gianni Infantino appears in his previous capacity as Secretary General of UEFA (2009-2016) and later as the newly elected FIFA president, who vowed to root out corruption and hand the beautiful game back to the people where it belongs.

That, as it turns out, was all wishful thinking.

Escobar Cigars, Co-Owned by Nas, Drops Four-Profile Robusto House Blend Collection

Blade, Knife, Weapon

Imagine that, Nas is getting closer to ruling the cigar world. The legendary rapper’s Escobar Cigars, which he co-owns, is making waves with the launch of a new four-profile House Blend collection. The launch is in partnership with Cigar Chief, one of North America’s largest premium cigar retailers.

The Manual has not yet had the chance to do a taste review (a pack is on the way), but Escobar Cigars says the four-profile House Blend collection (Maduro, Premium Blend Connecticut, Habano, and Connecticut Robusto) “has its own distinct wrapper, filler, and strength profile,” and that “all four are rolled in 5 x 52 Robusto format using classic Cubano entubado construction.”