Your Apple TV Plus Subscription Has More Value Than You Think

Apple TV Plus costs $12.99 per month and includes every original series, film, and live sport on the platform with zero ads, 4K Dolby Vision on every title, and Dolby Atmos surround sound at no extra charge. That flat rate also covers six simultaneous streams, which means a household of six can watch different shows on different devices at the same time without hitting a paywall tier.

The catch is that most of the subscription’s value sits behind features Apple does not surface during signup. Exclusive Formula 1 coverage launched in 2026, MLS Season Pass is now bundled at no extra cost, and the Apple One bundle can drop your effective per-service price below $4 a month. Knowing which features exist is only half the challenge. The real question is how to set each one up so you actually use them.

What $12.99 Actually Gets You

Every Apple TV Plus subscription includes the full content library. There are no tiers, no ad-supported plans, and no locked content behind a premium upgrade. A single $12.99 monthly payment covers every original on the platform, from Severance and Ted Lasso to the upcoming Cape Fear series premiering June 5, 2026. The subscription also includes Apple’s exclusive U.S. Formula 1 broadcast rights for the entire 2026 season (all 24 races, qualifying sessions, and practice sessions) and the complete MLS Season Pass with every live match, pregame coverage, and postgame analysis.

Six simultaneous streams come standard. You can share with up to five family members through Family Sharing, and each person gets their own recommendations, watchlist, and viewing history. Downloads for offline viewing work on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows, though the Apple TV 4K hardware itself does not support local downloads. Downloaded content stays available for up to 30 days before requiring a connection refresh.

Every single title streams in 4K Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos audio when your hardware supports it. That is not a premium add-on. Apple bakes those formats into the base subscription, which is something Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max all charge extra for or restrict to higher tiers.

The Apple One Bundle Changes the Math

Apple One bundles Apple TV Plus with Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and iCloud Plus starting at $19.95 per month for the Individual plan. The Family plan at $25.95 adds 200GB of iCloud Plus storage and lets you share everything with five additional people. The Premier plan at $37.95 per month adds Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, and 2TB of iCloud Plus storage. According to Apple’s own support page for Apple One bundles, the savings over buying each service individually range from roughly $8 to over $25 per month depending on the tier.

Here is the detail that matters most: when Apple raised the standalone Apple TV Plus price from $9.99 to $12.99 in August 2025, Apple One pricing stayed the same. That means the effective cost of Apple TV Plus inside an Apple One Family plan dropped to about $3.50 per month when you split out the other services at their standalone prices. For a household already paying for Apple Music and iCloud storage, Apple One is not an upsell. It is a discount you are leaving on the table.

How F1 and MLS Fit Into Your Subscription

Apple became the exclusive U.S. broadcast partner for Formula 1 starting with the 2026 season, replacing ESPN entirely. All 24 Grand Prix races, every qualifying session, every sprint, and all practice runs stream through the Apple TV app. Practice sessions are free for anyone, no subscription required, but race coverage requires an active Apple TV Plus subscription. If you have already configured your Apple TV 4K for live sports, the F1 channel appears automatically in the app. If you have not, the setup guide for F1 and MLS on Apple TV 4K walks through the entire process.

MLS Season Pass underwent a major shift for 2026. What used to sit behind a separate paywall is now included with every Apple TV Plus subscription. Every live match, the pregame and postgame shows, and the whip-around highlight coverage all come at no additional charge. The first 2026 MLS season matches started this week.

The friction point with live sports on Apple TV is the slight input lag on the Siri Remote when switching between the live feed and the multiview layout. Tapping the touchpad surface to bring up the score overlay sometimes registers as a swipe instead, which can jump you to a different camera angle during an F1 qualifying session. It is a small annoyance, but it stands out during high-stakes moments where you want instant feedback.

This comparison summarizes how Apple TV Plus stacks up against competing streaming services on the features that matter most to Apple ecosystem households.

Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos on Every Screen

Dolby Atmos is active on every Apple TV Plus original at launch, and the experience changes dramatically based on your playback setup. On an Apple TV 4K connected to a HomePod stereo pair, dialogue stays anchored to the screen while ambient effects wrap around the room. The Enhance Dialogue feature pulls spoken words forward in the mix regardless of whether you are using built-in TV speakers, a soundbar, or HomePods. If you connect AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, Personalized Spatial Audio tracks your head position relative to the screen, so the soundstage stays centered even when you shift on the couch.

The depth of the Atmos mix varies by title. Severance uses spatial audio to make the Lumon office corridors feel oppressively tight, with footsteps bouncing off surfaces in a way that flat stereo cannot replicate. Sports broadcasts handle it differently. The F1 feed places engine audio behind you during onboard camera angles, which is genuinely disorienting the first time. Setting up spatial audio on AirPods for Apple Music, Netflix, and Spotify covers the AirPods configuration if you want to dial in the head tracking sensitivity. Apple publishes its spatial audio design guidelines through the Human Interface Guidelines for playing audio, which detail how developers should position audio objects in three-dimensional space.

Getting the Free Trial (or the Better One)

The standard free trial is seven days. Open the Apple TV app on any supported device, start the trial, and you get full access to the complete library with no restrictions. After seven days, it converts to the $12.99 monthly subscription automatically. Cancel anytime during the trial and you pay nothing.

The better offer is the three-month free trial Apple bundles with every new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV 4K purchase. You have 90 days from the first time you set up the device to claim it. Open the Apple TV app on the new hardware, and the offer should appear immediately. If it does not, check the Apple TV tab inside the app. One detail Apple does not make obvious: the three-month offer is per device purchase, so buying a new iPhone and a new iPad in the same quarter gives you two separate three-month trials if you redeem them on different Apple IDs.

T-Mobile customers on Go5G Plus and Go5G Next plans currently get Apple TV Plus included with their wireless service at no additional cost. Verizon and other carriers have offered similar promotions in the past, so it is worth checking your carrier’s perks page before signing up directly.

Accessibility and Clarity

Apple TV Plus has strong accessibility support built into both the app and the Apple TV 4K hardware. Every original title includes closed captions and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH). Audio descriptions are available on all Apple Originals, providing a spoken narration track that describes on-screen action, settings, and visual details for viewers who are blind or have low vision. VoiceOver works across the entire tvOS interface, reading aloud every menu item, show title, and navigation element.

The Siri Remote deserves specific mention. The clickpad surface provides distinct tactile feedback at its edges, so you can feel where center ends and the directional ring begins without looking. The dedicated back button and TV button are physically separated by enough space that low-vision users can locate them by touch. Reduce Motion is available in tvOS accessibility settings for viewers with vestibular sensitivity, and Bold Text increases readability of show descriptions and menu labels. One gap remains: the Apple TV app on non-Apple smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Sony) does not inherit all tvOS accessibility settings, so VoiceOver and Switch Control are unavailable outside the Apple hardware ecosystem.

Cognitive accessibility is reasonable. The app’s navigation follows a consistent left-to-right, top-to-bottom pattern with persistent tabs for Apple TV Plus, MLS Season Pass, and the Library. There are no auto-playing trailers on the main browse screen when Reduce Motion is enabled, which cuts distracting movement for viewers with ADHD or sensory processing differences. Your Apple TV can also serve as a voice-controlled smart home hub, which centralizes entertainment and home controls in a single interface that reduces the cognitive overhead of switching between apps and remotes.

Quick-Action Checklist

1. Open the Apple TV app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, or at tv.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID.
2. Start the 7-day free trial, or redeem the 3-month trial if you purchased a new Apple device within the last 90 days.
3. Open Settings on Apple TV 4K, go to Video and Audio, and confirm Dolby Atmos is set to Auto. Enable Enhance Dialogue if you use built-in TV speakers.
4. Check the Apple TV tab for the F1 channel. Tap it to browse the 2026 race schedule and set notifications for upcoming Grand Prix events.
5. Open the MLS Season Pass section to follow your local club and enable match notifications.
6. Go to Settings, then Users and Accounts, then Family Sharing to invite up to five family members and give each person their own profile.
7. Visit apple.com/apple-one to compare Apple One tiers and see whether bundling saves you money over your current individual subscriptions.
8. On iPhone or iPad, tap the download icon on any title to save it for offline viewing during flights or commutes.