Apple TV+ was hoping people would make a dent in the Strategic Popcorn Reserve by bingeing its streaming TV and movies for free in what experts are calling a canny promotion.

The two-day offer on the first Saturday and Sunday of January was intended to give viewers a taste of what’s behind the Apple paywall and get them hooked, ready to fork over $9.99 a month in the U.S.

Michael D. Smith, a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said the two-day window is not too short to ignore and not too long to satisfy all demands.

While entertainment companies often use promotions and discounts to lure new customers, Apple TV+’s pitch has no catches, like entering personal info or credit card numbers. All you need is an Apple ID, which is free and which many people already have from the days of 99-cent song downloads.

Smith suspects that by the end of the promotion, Apple would have lots of data to sharpen its approach to new customers and returning ones, like himself. Apple would learn, for example, what genres are hot, which shows attract viewers and how long people spend watching.

There is some evidence that long-bingeing windows don’t help streamers build customers. A 2020 study by Miguel Godinho de Matos and Pedro Ferreira for the Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics at Carnegie Mellon found that binge-watching over several weeks reduces the post-trial likelihood of paid subscriptions.

Apple's weekend deal was clearly an attempt to shake up its numbers. As of October 2024, it had an estimated 25 million subscribers, making it the eighth most popular streaming service by subscribers. Netflix, in No. 1, has 282.7 million.

Other streamers are also offering deals, like Hulu's free 30-day trial, Starz's $2-a-month plan or Peacock's three-month trial for Samsung Galaxy owners.

“I think the battle amongst tech giants is all about content differentiation,” said Bo “Bobby” Zhou, a business professor at the University of Maryland.  “‘How can I capture consumers' attention?’ Because attention is the most valuable asset of anyone.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.