Recently, Samsung launched a web version of its free, ad-supported Smart TV Plus streaming service for live and linear programming. The company also added casting support for Chromecast devices. The streaming product that was limited to Samsung TV and mobile devices in the past is launched as a web service in the second quarter. It was first reported by Protocol on Friday.
This new player in the streaming was launched with seemingly little fanfare. However, it made the app that was previously limited to Samsung users widely available to just about anyone. The company did not make a comment yesterday.
Samsung TV Plus has been around for a couple of] years but it was only available on Samsung smart TVs since 2016. The rollout made it available to additional devices outside the streaming ecosystem so it is now placed against ad-supported streaming services like Peacock, the Roku Channel, or any number of linear-programming freebies like Pluto TV or Plex.
As of now, it is not clear why the company decided to soft launch the web version of its streaming service now. It seems the company is trying to explore different things to bring TV Plus to a larger audience. Technically, the choice of a free service to capture the market is a good one but if the company wishes to dominate the linear streaming space then it might be a bit late. We have to wait and see the turn of events in the streaming service domain to see what Samsung is up to next.
Key: Samsung
