Apple streaming first episode of Foundation free on YouTube, ahead of second season premiere

Apple TV+ dropped the first episode of sci-fi series Silo on Twitter last month, garnering tens of millions of views on the platform, as a promotional tactic ahead of that show’s season finale.

The company is now doing the same thing with its other big sci-fi fantasy series, Foundation. The first episode of the first season will be streaming on YouTube this Monday, ahead of the second season premiere on July 14.

Season one of Foundation premiered back in September 2021. The highly anticipated second season comes almost two years later, after being held up by COVID production delays and ongoing bottlenecks of a short supply of VFX artists. A third season is rumored to already be in the development stages, although Apple has not yet officially greenlit a renewal.

Putting episodes on social media helps raise awareness for Apple’s content. In the scheme of things, it may seem immaterial as episode one premieres of almost all of Apple’s shows are always available to watch for free inside the Apple TV app, no subscription required.

But the barrier to entry of even opening the TV app is high enough that guerrilla-style marketing directly on the apps people are already using can result in a successful marketing campaign. Ultimately, the ploy is to drive subscriber growth to get people hooked and want to watch the rest of the season on the TV+ platform itself.

For Foundation, Apple will stream Foundation S1E1 on YouTube as a Live Premiere, alongside a Q&A session with showrunner David Goyer, at 11 a.m. PT on July 10.