AppleTV+ Making First Episode of ‘Foundation’ Free on YouTube Ahead of Second Season Premiere With Live Q&A
“Foundation” is returning with new episodes this week. The series will debut its second season on Friday, June 14, and to promote the new episodes Apple TV+ is making the show’s premiere episode available to stream for free on YouTube! And if that wasn’t enough, the series’ showrunner David S. Goyer will be answering questions about the show live in the YouTube chat.
Starting at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, July 10, Apple will place Season 1, Episode 1 of “Foundation” on YouTube with no login credentials required. Users will be able to watch free for a limited time, and Apple hopes the episode will get some new customers hooked enough to try the streamer’s seven-day free trial. The trial would give viewers enough time to binge through the first season, plus see the second season premiere.
Watch the First Episode of ‘Foundation’ From Apple TV+:
“Foundation” follows a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. The series stars Leah Harvey, Lee Pace, Jared Harris, Laura Birn, and Terrence Mann. Season 1 of the series debuted to mostly positive reviews, garnering a 72% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is the second time in a span of just a few weeks that Apple has made an episode of one of its prestige TV series available for free. It used a different social media site, namely Twitter to show the first episode of “Silo” in late June, ahead of that series’ Season 1 finale. The episode racked up millions of views during its time on Twitter, and its success must have convinced Apple to try the tactic again.
The use of social media to post episodes of select series for free is an increasingly common tactic. Paramount+ has used YouTube to show episodes of “1923,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and other series. Disney+ recently put an episode of “American Born Chinese” on the platform, and also frequently uses its cable channels to broadcast select episodes of Disney+ original series.
If the “Foundation” episode on YouTube runs with ads, it will give users a preview of what the viewing experience might be like if Apple TV+ launches an ad-supported streaming tier of its own. Apple has been hiring executives with advertising experience this year, leading to speculation that it was preparing to join its larger competitors in streaming like Netflix and Disney+ by offering an ad-supported tier. No public announcement along those lines has been forthcoming from Apple, but it’s something to keep an eye on during the second half of this year.
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is a subscription video streaming service for $9.99 a month that includes high-quality original shows and movies including Best Picture winner “CODA,” popular sitcom “Ted Lasso,” and dramas like “The Morning Show” and “Severance.” Apple TV+ is also home to MLB baseball games on Friday nights and MLS Season Pass.