Samsung has stakes in nearly every corner of the consumer electronics infinite. Including a live Television set streaming service that's completely free to use.

However, as Samsung TV Plus spent years every bit an offering exclusively available to users of Samsung TVs and smartphones, at that place's a huge potential audition out there completely unaware of its existence.

This lack of public exposure may be about to change, as Samsung has quietly launched its Samsung TV Plus service on the web. This article will look at the service, what it offers, and how it stacks upward against more well-established competition.

What Is Samsung Television set Plus?

Samsung Boob tube Plus originally launched equally a born app on the company'southward smart TVs. The software has been available on Samsung telly sets produced as far back as 2016, and remains an included app on televisions produced upward to 2021.

In September 2020, TV Plus expanded to Samsung's Milky way line of smartphones and tablets, with essentially every Galaxy-branded device since the S7 gaining support for the service.

While this expansion likely grew the platform's audience (or potential audience) considerably, and profoundly diversified the locations it could be accessed from, non-Samsung device users remained out in the common cold. Now, nonetheless, Samsung is finally giving everyone a hazard to try TV Plus for the first fourth dimension with a full public launch on the web.

The Launch of SamsungTVPlus.com

In July 2021, Samsung quietly debuted SamsungTVPlus.com, a site with access to a version of the service that can be visited by anyone, regardless of who manufactured their device. Not just does this open the service up to users of non-Samsung smartphones and tablets, it also makes it available to users on PCs and Chromebooks for the first time.

At that place are some differences betwixt the app version of Samsung TV Plus and the web-based offering, which volition be explained in more detail below. Still, the service is, for the most part, identical to its mobile and smart Idiot box counterpart, offering access to a selection of gratuitous channels broadcasting a range of live content.

It'southward articulate that Samsung is non positioning the offer as competition to the likes of paid services such as Hulu + Live TV or YouTube Telly, only rather is pitting information technology against more than well-established free services like Pluto Idiot box.

What Does Samsung Television receiver Plus on the Web Offer?

Samsung TV Plus includes, at the fourth dimension of writing, 146 channels on its web version. This is slightly less than the 160 channels made bachelor via the app, likely due to differences in platform-specific licensing deals with content providers. And correct now, the web version is merely available in select regions.

Those channels are cleaved upwardly into 16 categories: News and Opinion (13), Entertainment (26), Sports (23), Kids (8), Comedy (seven), International (three), Movies (ten), Music (half-dozen), Latino (9), Offense (4), Game Shows (4), Food, Home and Travel (11), Reality (v), Gaming (5), Scientific discipline and Nature (vii), and Sci-Fi and Horror (5).

Samsung TV Plus Guide and Small Player

It should be noted that several of the 146 channels on offer focus on a single series or a single franchise. For instance, the Entertainment category has entire channels defended to episodes of Baywatch and Nashville, as well as some other channel that exclusively shows content related to the Walking Dead universe.

Meanwhile, the Game Shows section's four channels include a Bargain or No Deal U.s.a. channel and a Wipeout channel alongside the more diverse, vintage offerings of Buzzr and Game Show Fundamental.

The presence of channels like these, of course, significantly reduces the diversity of content on offering. That said, these laser-focused channels are the minority of Samsung TV Plus' many offerings.

How to Apply the Samsung TV Plus Website

Samsung TV Plus' Guide and Information Pane

SamsungTVPlus.com is presented in a format that should be familiar to just about anyone that has used a live TV streaming service or fix-peak box within the past decade. Information technology includes a video role player at the top of the screen, situated to a higher place an on-screen guide list electric current and upcoming programming.

The guide extends half-dozen hours into the future. Clicking on whatsoever futurity programming volition produce a pop-over dialogue that can provide additional information on the program, including actors, a description, running time, and more. Users can besides click on the aqueduct's logo on the left side of the interface to encounter a description of the entire channel and its typical content.

Samsung TV Plus in Fullscreen Mode

When yous click on a currently airing evidence, that video will pop upwards on the player at the top of the screen after a short loading time (4-ten seconds in our feel).

Once the programming is loaded, you lot can command the volume, add captions (where available), expand the video to total-screen, intermission the content, or control the streaming resolution. It should exist noted that, while the mobile version of Samsung TV Plus provides 4K streaming on select channels, based on our testing the spider web-based alternative tops out at 1080p.

Samsung TV Plus does not back up whatever kind of DVR-style controls. All content is presented alive, and no on-need programming is offered by the platform. This means that resuming paused content will simply play the show from the bespeak information technology is currently airing at live. Additionally, no content can be rewound or advanced through, and nothing can be played unless information technology is currently ambulation.

As a free service, Goggle box Plus does, of form, include ads at nigh the same frequency and length as traditional broadcast television, although this does vary somewhat from channel to channel.

How Does Samsung Television set Plus Stack Up to the Competition?

As mentioned in a higher place, Samsung TV Plus is seemingly designed to compete with other complimentary streaming services, the almost well-known of which is almost certainly Pluto TV. That said, Pluto Telly does have one major advantage over TV Plus... on-demand content.

The original TV Plus app did launch with support for on-need programming. However, Samsung has since moved its on-demand library to other platforms, and does not currently offer it in any form via the web-based or app-based versions of TV Plus.

Aside from this notable weakness, the overall format of both offerings is nearly identical: a video player above an on-screen guide layout that tin be accessed immediately upon visiting their corresponding web addresses. All without requiring a login.

Users of both services that choose to sign upwardly and log in will, however, receive similar benefits around their alive programming. These include the option to save favorite channels, come across recommendations, and customize certain aspects of their viewing experience.

As far as the sheer number of live channels goes, Pluto Television definitely has Samsung TV Plus beat, offering over 100 boosted channels and bringing with it access to major entertainment franchises and networks like Star Trek and Nickelodeon that Samsung Boob tube Plus lacks.

Is Samsung TV Plus Worth Trying?

In curt, yes. Samsung TV Plus is completely free to utilize, and doesn't require a sign-up or login. This ways that y'all have absolutely nothing to lose by giving information technology a shot. You may find a niche channel with content you dearest, or you may go bored and move on 10 minutes later with nothing but a trivial bit of wasted fourth dimension to show for it.

Samsung's decision to make this launch a quiet one may exist with good reason.

The web-based service, which even so isn't fifty-fifty listed on the Samsung TV Plus FAQ page at the time of writing, could exist seen every bit somewhat of a backdoor beta test or public interest check. With that in mind, it's important not to guess it too harshly, or to make direct comparisons to services that have had years to constitute themselves as full-fledged, public-facing offerings.

As it currently stands, the service tin't directly compete with the likes of Pluto Television (what is Pluto Television?) or any of the paid offerings in the streaming live TV infinite. All the same, Samsung's determination to bring it to the open up web shows a want to aggrandize its viewership, and may bespeak future intentions to grow the offering itself to entice new viewers with additional content and more diverse programming.

Will Samsung Goggle box Plus Succeed?

If the option of free TV content on the web remains a scrap of a "Wild Due west" situation, Samsung TV Plus at to the lowest degree represents another safe cease on the journey. Whether it ends up every bit but another abandoned ghost town or flourishes into a major attraction is upward to viewers such as yourself.

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Michael Gariffo (5 Articles Published)

Michael is a veteran technology writer that has been covering business organisation and consumer-focused hardware and software for over a decade. He has published hundreds of whitepapers and thousands of manufactures on everything from the handheld technology that makes your daily life a little easier to the global infrastructure that powers the unabridged Internet. He loves technology so much that even when he's non writing about it he tin can often be constitute customizing a mouse, building a mechanical keyboard, or "streamlining" his multi-monitor setup for the 12th and, what will very unlikely be, final time.

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