How To Score Apple TV For $5.99 Per Month And What To Watch First

Summer is about to be sizzling with deals once Amazon's Prime Day sales event kicks off next week. In the meantime, we're seeing plenty of bargains show up early, both on Amazon and at competing retailers. One of those deals is a discounted Apple TV membership. Let me show you how to get the most from Apple's streaming service for the least amount of money.

If you are new to Apple TV, start your streaming journey by taking advantage of Apple's 7-day free trial. You can fire up the Apple TV app on your iOS or Android device and you should see the offer, or head to the Apple TV landing page on a desktop browser and click the 'Accept Free Trial' button.

This gives you a week to check out Apple's catalog. There are a lot of original TV shows and a decent selection of movies to browse, more than enough to blast right through the free trial without having really scratched the surface (more on that in a bit).

Once the trial ends, Apple begins billing you $12.99 per month until you cancel. However, there is a better option. Cancel your trial before it expires and move onto the next step.

There is a caveat to this method. Unlike some services, when you cancel a free trial to Apple TV, you lose access immediately rather than having it continue until the end of the trial period. So, set a reminder on your phone to cancel towards the end. Protip: give yourself 24 hours to play it safe.

Once the trial ends, you can opt to pay full price, but there is a better option. Amazon is offering a promotion to Prime members that let's you subscribe to Apple TV for $5.99 per month for the first two months before paying the full $12.99/month fee. That saves you $14 over the course of the two discounted months, and while not life changing, it temporarily drops the subscription by more than half.

You need to be a Prime member to take advantage of this deal, and of course there is a cost associated with subscribing to Prime. The other caveat is that is managed through Amazon rather than Apple, so as far as I know, your watch history from your free trial will not transfer. Assuming I'm correct here, you'll have to keep track of which episodes you already watched to know where to pick up from where you left off.

Amazon's offer ends on June 26, 2026 (a week from this Friday), so you have time to go the free trial via Apple + discounted promo via Amazon route.

Sign up through Amazon and then check out these shows.

I've been subscribing to Apple TV on and off for quite some time now, depending on various promotions and my rotation with other streaming services, and it is one of my favorites among the bunch. It has a smaller catalog than some competing services like Netflix, but it's densely packed with some great shows.

The top 10 list is a great place to start. Out of those, I highly recommend "Ted Lasso" starring Jason Sudeikis, even if you are not a fan of soccer. The heartwarming comedy transcends sports and is getting ready to begin its fourth season.

Same can be said about "Stick," another comedy on Apple TV but starring Owen Wilson and centered on golf. Again, you do not have to be a fan of golf to enjoy this series. My sports preferences lean heavily into basketball, football (American football, that is), baseball, and hockey, but I thoroughly enjoyed both "Ted Lasso" and "Stick."

You may have noticed that we mix in space coverage with our technology content. If those stories appeal to you, a must-watch is "For All Mankind," a fictional drama series that explores what would have happened if Russia had beat the United States to the moon and the global space race kept going. Yes, it's an alternate timeline that begins in 1969 and extends into the 2010s through the course of five seasons.

Here are some other shows I highly recommend:

• "Shrinking" starring Harrison Ford and Jason Segel
• "Your Friends & Neighbors" starring Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, and James Masden
• "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" starring Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russel, and Anna Sawai
• "Severance" starring Adam Scott, Britt Lower, and Patricia Arquette
• "Silo" starring Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, Tim Robbins, and Common
• "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Billy Crudup
• "See" starring Jason Momoa, Syliva Hook, and Hera Hilmar