Samsung says it is rolling out an update to its free, ad-supported streaming service Samsung TV Plus that will see dedicated sections for music and children’s television shows.
The updates come after Samsung says it saw a 60 percent growth in usage of Samsung TV Plus this year, a data point that the company didn’t back with concrete viewership numbers when it issued a press release this week.
“With phenomenal year over year growth and an ever-expanding premium lineup of family-friendly shows, music playlists, news, sports programming and more, Samsung TV Plus has a clear foothold in the FAST landscape,” Salek Brodsky, the senior vice president and general manager of Samsung TV Plus, said in a statement, using the acronym for free, ad-supported television.
Brodsky continued: “We are thrilled to present our catalog of free premium content from the world’s top creators in our new user experience, designed to enable the seamless discovery of the hundreds of channels and thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows available on Samsung TV Plus.”
Samsung says its free streaming platform offers some of the most-comprehensive live news streams on the market, to include free news content from major sources like Disney’s ABC News, Paramount’s CBS News, Comcast’s NBC News and Sky News, Bloomberg, Scripps News, Cheddar, USA Today, Yahoo! and others.
The company also touted its general entertainment and holiday themed movie library available through linear channels and on-demand streaming on Samsung TV Plus. Samsung collates its movies through a designated section called “Movie Hub,” which is expanding with new options like Movie Hub West, Movie Hub Action and Movie Hub Holidays.
“With unprecedented global reach, Samsung delivers a seamless, cross-device viewing experience for consumers to enjoy at home and on-the-go,” a Samsung spokesperson said in a statement.
Samsung said its free, ad-supported streaming platform is available on more than 555 million Samsung smart TVs and mobile devices around the world, to include its lineup of Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets and some home appliances like Samsung refrigerators with smart screens. A web version of Samsung TV Plus is also available for desktop and laptop computers.
The new update to Samsung TV Plus will roll out first to Samsung smart TVs built between 2019 and 2023. Next year, the update will debut on Samsung phones, tablets and other smart screen devices, as well as newer-model Samsung TVs.
