Analyst: Fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have used Apple TV+ free trial

Apple TV+ Apple TV interface
Apple TV+ Apple TV interface (Image credit: Joseph Keller / iMore)

What you need to know

  • A Wall Street analyst says Apple TV+ uptake may have been surprisingly low.
  • Toni Sacconaghi estimates that fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have taken the year's free trial.
  • That would put figures below 10 million subscribers.

Wall Street analyst Toni Sacconaghi has estimated that fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have taken advantage of Apple TV+'s year's free subscription, putting total subscription figures below 10 million.

According to Investor's Business Daily:

Less than 10% of Apple (AAPL) customers eligible for 12-month free trials of the company's Apple TV+ streaming video service have taken the offer, a Wall Street analyst said Monday.Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that under 10 million Apple customers have accepted the free trial offer. He calls that a "surprisingly low take rate."Apple customers are eligible for one year of free service to Apple TV+ if they bought a new iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, iPod Touch or Apple TV set-top box after Sept. 10. Other customers pay $4.99 a month for the service.Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the Bernstein report.

Apparently, Sacconaghi's prediction is based on Apple's results for Q1 2020. He believes that Apple has not effectively promoted the video service to its larger user base. He also states that it might be deliberately scaling its promotions to "slowly mitigate the negative accounting impact of its early ramp", and finally, he believes that the service may not be resonating with customers.

The report is in stark contrast to a recent WSJ report, which included estimates that Apple TV+ may have north of 30 million subscribers. As is per usual with these sorts of estimates, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9