If you’re still looking for free, ad-supported on-demand video streaming services to watch on your devices, non-Samsung users are finally getting another one. Samsung TV Plus is their previously-exclusive streaming service available for Samsung-made smartphones and smart TVs. Now it’s also available on the web and other smart TVs. Samsung device owners can also now cast videos from the service to devices that support Google’s Chromecast technology. There was no major announcement but this has been confirmed by a Samsung spokesperson.
Protocol reports that Samsung TV Plus has finally expanded its free streaming service to non-Samsung users. You will now be able to watch videos from the service on your browser and even other non-Samsung Smart TVs. You can also watch it on a bigger screen by casting the video from your smartphone to any device that supports Chromecast. With this expansion, Samsung TV Plus is now competing with other free streaming services like Pluto TV and Tubi.
While the Samsung spokesperson has confirmed that they indeed expanded in the second quarter of this year, there is no public announcement yet and marketing materials for the streaming service have not mentioned that yet. But you can indeed access Samsung TV Plus already, at least if you’re in the U.S. There are around 140 channels in the service including ABC News Live, PBS Kids, ION Plus, Vice, Vevo channels, etc. Some channels will require you to sign in with your Samsung account so be ready.
Samsung TV Plus was launched back in 2016, first as a transactional streaming service which eventually turned into an ad-supported one. This seems to be a popular model among cord-cutters as consumers would sit through ads as long as they get content for free. Even some of the paid streaming services offer cheaper ad-supported ones so it looks like advertising on streaming is alive and kicking.
Samsung TV Plus is now available in 23 countries including India, Brazil, Mexico, and most of Europe. But for the web version and non-Samsung Smart TVs, it seems to be limited to just the U.S for now.
