I’m dubious, but fewer than 10% of the Apple device owners eligible to get the company’s Apple TV+ streaming service have taken advantage of the one-year-free offer, according to one analyst — as noted by Deadline.
In a note to clients, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said she arrived at the figure through a series of calculations based on the tech giant’s fourth-quarter report and commentary from management.
She added that: said the low adoption of Apple TV+, even among those who can get it for free, could have three plausible explanations. Scenario 1: Apple hasn’t succeeded in its promotion of the service, as it juggles it with marketing a range of other new services and devices. Scenario 2: Apple may be “conservatively estimating its ‘take rate’ or deliberately scaling its promotions of TV+ slowly to mitigate the negative accounting impact of its early ramp,” the analyst wrote. Scenario 3: Apple TV+ is simply “failing to resonate with customers, perhaps due to its limited content offerings.”
So why is the Sellers Research Group (that’s me) doubtful about the accuracy of the report? You get Apple TV+ free for a year with the purchase of a new Mac, iPhone, or iPad. It seems illogical to me that 90% of those who could try the service for free for 12 months wouldn’t at least give it a try. After all, people love free!
What’s more, the Wall Street Journal recently ported that Apple TV+ has 33.6 million subscribers (free subscribers, I might add), compared to 31.8 million for Hulu and 23.2 million for Disney+.
