The “Samsung TV Plus” free television service could soon be extended to devices other than those of the Korean brand. An approach that would make sense when Samsung already offers, under license, its Tizen OS operating system to other manufacturers.
Launched seven years ago, Samsung TV Plus has quietly found a place on televisions and devices (tablets and smartphones, in particular) of the Korean brand. After being gradually enriched, the free streaming television platform could now be extended to other products – from other brands. Samsung’s idea? Continue to grow the service as free-to-air, ad-supported TV platforms gain traction in the wake of Pluto TV and Roku Live TV across the Atlantic (YouTube would also seek to strengthen its positions in this field).
This project would basically not be surprising: Samsung has already allowed its TV Plus application to venture on Chromecast in 2021, and the firm has also opened access to it on the web. Note that, in parallel, Samsung has been offering for a few months other manufacturers to exploit, under license, its operating system Tyzen OS for their own televisions. Allowing TV Plus to venture more widely outside of the Samsung ecosystem would therefore be a logical next step for the service.
Samsung TV Plus: a service that is on the rise
That said, Samsung would take an important step here. The firm would seek in this case to sign partnerships with other market players, and potentially some big fish like Sony or LG, believes FossBytes… which still surprises us a little, mainly with regard to LG. The brand has its own free streaming TV service: LG Channelscertainly much more embryonic, but still present on the webOS ecosystem.
It is not known, however, what the terms of such agreements would be if Samsung managed to negotiate them. Two main avenues: either Samsung would pay its partners to authorize the installation on their televisions of a bouquet of its own services, including TV Plus (it would then be for Samsung to increase their user base) ; or the brand would move towards an economic model based on profit sharing. It is also not excluded that Samsung chooses to open TV Plus to the iOS and Android ecosystems to give it, all of a sudden, much more visibility.
As a reminder, Samsung TV Plus is now used monthly on no less than 7.4 million of the brand’s television sets, and the platform now includes 1,800 television channels accessible for free. The service should nevertheless include, shortly, a paid part with exclusive programs that would allow it to gain even more importance.
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