Jamaican subscribers can now reach Apple TV through a storage plan that costs US$0.99 a month, less than the price of a patty, while Americans pay 15 times as much for the service on its own.
The shift retires years of virtual private networks (VPN) workarounds and borrowed foreign accounts. Apple folded its streaming service into paid iCloud storage plans this week and switched on access in more than 100 countries, Jamaica among them.
“Really it’s available? I think I pay nearly US$20 a month,” said a Jamaican Apple TV subscriber, who asked that her name be withheld because she reached the service through a VPN workaround and feared the provider would close her account. “I have watched Apple TV for years by that route.”
Jamaicans who use the service typically open an account overseas and carry it home. Apple’s updated availability page, published on September 15, removes the need for that. It lists Jamaica among the markets where the company now sells the service directly.
Apple raised the standalone Apple TV subscription in the United States to US$14.99 a month on August 28, three weeks before the bundle reached Jamaica. Nor does Apple stand alone in pricing below its North American rates. Netflix sells plans from US$8.99 a month in the United States and from about US$5.99 in Jamaica. Disney+ charges US$15 a month for its entry tier in the United States. HBO Max starts at US$10.99 in the United States; it entered the Caribbean in 2021 at US$3 a month and publishes no current local price.
Apple issued no Jamaica-specific release. Its general announcement said iCloud+ subscribers in more than 100 countries and regions will receive Apple TV and Apple Arcade at no additional cost, with the roll-out running to the end of September. The move carries Apple TV into 59 new countries and lifts its total reach to 170.
Jamaica appears by name on that list, alongside Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, The Bahamas, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and the member countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Jamaican users who open the iCloud settings page see four tiers priced in US dollars, starting at US$0.99 a month for 50 gigabytes, which carries both the television and games services. Any tier covers up to five other family members.
Apple’s list of eligible countries for the bundled plans omits the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and most of Western Europe.
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