T-Mobile Offers Subscribers a Free Year of Apple TV+

Decent?

(I see that word was not used it the original article though)

Yeah, that just ended up in the blurb. That said, $60 is way more real than the minuscule payments we often get from class-action suit settlements, which is what I was thinking of.

Except nobody’s actually getting $60.

Those that find AppleTV+ worth that much likely already paid for it. And the rest of us, well, I’ll leave it to you to estimate how much we think it’s worth. The fact that companies left and right these days are throwing AppleTV+ in for free to peddle their wares serves as an indication.

I don’t see how subscribing to Apple TV+ in the past in any way relates to getting a free year going forward since you pay monthly. A free year is a free year.

For those who haven’t tried Apple TV+, I strongly recommend Ted Lasso, which is a really nice show. We’re also enjoying Mythic Quest.

And if you don’t like any of it, no one’s forcing you to take advantage of the deal.

In which case you get zilch from T-Mobile, which was exactly my point.

But the entertainment value of an opportunity for a dig at both T-Mobile and Apple is priceless!

I am a T-Mobile subscriber and was notified that my information was among that stolen. I don’t have Apple TV now (the one free year ran out) - so was interested in this offer. However, I would have to upgrade my plan ($70/month) to a covered plan ($100/month) to get the “free” Apple TV. What a deal! I guess only those paying too much are eligible. If this is an apology for the hack, then it is pretty pathetic.

David

Which plan do you have? The list of covered plans is pretty large, which is why we didn’t list every one:

Eligible plans for T-Mobile customers include Magenta, Magenta MAX, Magenta 55+, Magenta MAX 55+, Magenta First Responders, Magenta MAX First Responders, Magenta Military, Magenta MAX Military, Magenta MAX Welcome, Magenta Deaf or Heard of Hearing, Magenta Max Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Magenta Amplified, Business Unlimited Advanced, Business Unlimited Ultimate, Magenta for Business and Magenta MAX for Business rate plans.

Nevertheless, T-Mobile has said nothing about this being an apology—that was entirely our speculation.

What I would recommend, though, is calling them up and telling them that you’re extremely unhappy about them losing your data and then not giving you the free year of Apple TV+. Maybe you’ll get lucky, particularly if you imply you’re looking to switch carriers. :-)

I have the T-Mobile “ONE Plan Unlimited 55” - a nice deal for two iPhones and an Apple Watch. No complaints about that and the service here in Las Vegas is great (5G almost all the time). I have no plan to change and don’t like to have to argue with a poor customer service agent. (Now, if I could get a better price from Cox for my cable TV service…)

I am just waiting for all the Ted Lasso episodes to be out, then will sign up for one month of Apple TV, watch what I want and then cancel.

David

Ah! I see now—that’s a now-retired plan, so it makes sense that it wouldn’t be included in a new promotion. I can’t offhand tell how that would compare with Magenta 55+, which would seem to be the replacement.

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/one-plan-for-phones

I have the same plan and am therefor also ineligible. But the Magenta 55+ is very similar plan and cost the same ($70). I haven’t switched, but I may. You can compare the two plans by logging into your account and selecting Change Plan (don’t worry this step does NOT change the plan). Then pick Magenta 55+ and you will get a comparison, feature by feature.

I checked and the Magenta 55+ still shows as $100/month. The added features are 40GB of hot spot data, Netflix, better video streaming quality and better global texting and data. None of interest to me - I have Netflix already. Thanks for suggesting I check this.

David

Well, magenta 55+ for me would br $70, and Magenta MAX 55+ is $90. Not sure why your rates are different.

Magenta 55+ does not include Netflix nor better streaming but Magenta MAX 55+ does.

Their naming is confusing. I’m not trying to encourage you to switch. I just wanted to point out the possibility.

I also did not qualify because I have the ONE Plan Unlimited 55, for which I have a grandfathered rate of $60/month for 2 lines. I thought that if the upgrade would replace my Netflix subscription for which I currently pay $13.99/month it would be a good deal, but the Tmobile rep said they only reimburse $8.99 for Netflix. Turns out there are 3 Netflix price tiers…
BASIC = $8.99 for 1 user at a time and standard definition SD
STANDARD = $13.99 for 2 users at a time and high definition HD
PREMIUM = $17.99 for 4 users at a time and 4K UHD + HDR
The rep told me to keep watching their promos page becasue when the iPhone 13 is available they will have some good trade-in deals. At that time I will consider upgrading my Tmobile Plan to Magenta 55+ or the Magenta MAX 55+ to get AppleTV+ for 1 year AND Netflix AND a deal on upgrading my iPhone Xs.

I looked again - and the $100/month plan I mentioned was Magenta Max55+. I checked for Magenta 55+ and that is quoted at $80 and includes Netflix Basic (SD quality - one screen), so that also isn’t something I would be interested in. It is interesting that we get different price quotes - I think it is their goal to obfuscate the “real” price - I assume so that they have some negotiating room.

David

My guess (only a guess) is that the $10/mo difference depends on whether you have autopay or not. You’re right about Netflix basic 1 screen, which I had missed. But that offers a $8.99/mo discount towards any existing Netflix subscription you may have — another possible saving for me.

Yes, I’m also enjoying Ted Lasso. And Truth be Told, though it’s a bit depressing.

Speaking of free years, I’m on a free year because I bought a new iPad Pro this year. I was thinking of updating my MBP 2013 when new MBPs are released (maybe next month?). Does the free year of Apple TV+ get added on to the current year, or does it overlap?

I hear that Apple gives only one free period per AppleID. Isn’t it down to three months now?

It was recently lowered to three months. It looks like TV+’s one year freebie subscribers obviously weren’t converting to paid. I guess T-Mobile is looking to bolster its own sales. Typically, the streaming content providers get a negotiated fee for the free subscriptions. T-Mobile probably inked a good deal for themselves; we’ll see if it works.

My guess is that the powers that be at Apple thought that the one year freebie would be a good selling point, but it didn’t work out. IMHO, TV+ has been Tim Cooke’s big mistake so far. Steve Jobs made sure he inked deals with record companies and artists before launching iTunes. Tim Cook should have bought Fox or another studio; and a few of them were sold the last few years. TV+ Has a minuscule library, and so far it’s devoid of show stoppers. And they never even cut a deal for live sports, though there are rumors that they are currently trying:

I’ve read they have an upcoming series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, and they are top of my list of sci fi book favorites. But there have been other film and TV adaptations that sank like stones. The books might not be filmable, though I hope TV+ can pull this one off. They are handing out mega bucks for content that isn’t paying off. It’s not like Apple doesn’t have more than enough money sitting in the bank. The longer this continues, the harder it will be for them to negotiate deals.

Here’s an interesting acquisition for Apple Music:

“In the meantime, current Primephonic subscribers will receive six months of Apple Music for free, including its library of Lossless and high-resolution audio, as well as hundreds of classical albums in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio.”

If Apple is willing to expand their already tremendously successful Music catalog via acquisition, why not do the same to build up poor little struggling TV+?

Got an email today from T-Mobile saying “Free AppleTV+”. I followed the links, and at about the sixth step it said “You are not eligible because of your plan”. Seems like they would know that when they send out the emails!

They probably want you to switch to a new plan and pay more for it.

That’s certainly idea, but from experience with Take Control, where we worked really hard to send the right email to the right people, it’s often exceedingly difficult to identify precisely who should and should not receive a message. As @MMTalker suggests, it’s often just easiest to spend less time trying to target the message and instead consider it a nudge to switch to from an obsolete plan to a current one.

Update (for anyone who is considering switch t-mobil plans). I took the plunge: I updated my T-mobile One 55+ plan ($70/mo for two lines) to T-mobile Magenta 55+ (also $70/mo). I did it online. T-mobile held the change until the beginning of my next billing period. After the change was effective, I was able to get a year of Apple TV+ for free instantly. (My subscription expiration date was extended to 7/2023 from 7/2022).

In addition, the new plan includes Netflix (basic) for free. I have Netflix 4k so T-mobile is playing $8.99 per mo and raising my t-mobil bill by $9/mo to cover the rest of the $17.99 fee. New result, 1 year of AppleTV+, and reduction of my Netflix bill by 50%. My new T-mobile bill is $79/mo but I no longer am paying $17.99/mo to Netflix.

(Note: Prices above include $10/mo discount for autopay.)

There were really no downsides that I am aware of.