The FINANCIAL — Samsung Electronics on December 28 announced it will introduce three new Smart TV services at CES 2017, to be held January 5 through January 9, 2017 in Las Vegas.
The new services – including ‘Sports’, ‘Music’ and ‘TV Plus’ – will offer personalized content to consumers based on their TV preferences through Samsung’s Smart Hub platform.
“At Samsung, one of our top priorities is ensuring that we are closely in tune with what consumers want and need from their smart devices and electronics,” said Won Jin Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “With that in mind, we continue to innovate our Smart TV offering in order to provide the content experiences that our customers have come to know and expect from Samsung.”
Samsung’s Smart TV ‘Sports’ service will provide sports fans with information on when their favorite teams are playing, where they can watch it as well as scores – all in one navigation page. Instead of having to flip through dozens of channels to find the big game, all details will be curated by the customized ‘Sports’ user interface, according to Samsung.
Samsung plans to further expand the range of content offered through the ‘Sports’ service with additional content partners including NBC Sports, UFC and more.
The Samsung ‘Music’ service will allow Smart TV customers to easily search and identify songs on live TV or directly from television programs. ‘Music’ will also make recommendations in the ‘Preview’ section of Smart Hub’s user interface for customers to discover new music and play songs as they please.
The Samsung ‘Music’ service currently offers content from eight music app partners including Spotify, iHeartRadio, Napster, Deezer, Sirius XM, Vevo, Melon and Bugs. The service will be available starting in France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the U.S.
Lastly, ‘TV Plus’ will offer IP-based channels focused on premium content services through a new Smart Electronic Program Guide (EPG) solution. Samsung customers will no longer have to wait for cable services to offer marathon sessions of their favorite TV shows and can watch immediately just by turning on a TV Plus channel.
Samsung introduced TV Plus in the U.S. market on select Samsung Smart TVs. TV Plus conveniently brings high quality content into a single app on your TV for the most premium viewing experience. Samsung is pleased to partner with FandangoNow to bring instant access to rent or buy more than 40,000 movies and shows, including new releases in 4K HDR. Paired with Samsung Checkout, TV Plus is the fastest way to connect with the entertainment you love, right out of the box.
Samsung first launched TV Plus in Southeast Asia. It is now also available in the U.S., and will be available in Europe in April, 2017. Samsung will partner with Fandango and Rakuten to provide premium T-VOD content in the U.S. and Europe, respectively, and with Funke to A-VOD content in Germany.
