Now touting 750 channels in the U.S., and more than 3,500 internationally, Samsung TV Plus on Wednesday rolled out a new AI-driven user-experience design that Samsung believes will deliver “smarter navigation” and “better discovery” of its vast flora and fauna with “less scrolling.”
Samsung TV Plus is the free ad-supported streaming service (FAST) that populates the TVOS of the No. 1 smart TV brand, both in North America and globally. Samsung said back in October of last year that it has 88 million monthly active users.
The Korean electronics giant said that the new UX design delivers a more immersive browsing experience with simplified navigation.
Samsung TV Plus now includes machine-learning components that can tap into individual user tastes and habits. A personalized home screen adapts to individual user preferences over time, as the software learns which channels, shows and genres the user prefers.
The Samsung FAST also touts improved linear-to-VOD integration, making it easier for users to move between “live” linear programming and on-demand movies and shows. Meanwhile, a live events spotlight is intended to offer better discovery of sports, concerns and news.
“With AI at the core and a bold new look, this is our smartest and most visually stunning update yet.” said Salek Brodsky, senior VP and global head of Samsung TV Plus. “With these innovations, we not only bring a highly intuitive and personalized experience to FAST, but also bring the true depth and breadth of our high-quality programming to life.”
Making major changes to the UX of a globally situated streaming service, free or subscription-based, can be a fraught exercise. Back in May, when Netflix rolled out its first major UX redesign in over a decade, Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim eloquently explained the challenges of creating efficient, effective visual/interactive software that guides around 700 million users speaking all kinds of different languages and who have vastly varying tastes.
But it looks like Samsung TV Plus might need to take a risk and shake things up.
TV Plus touted a 50% YoY increase in viewership last October, but the platform seems to lag behind other major U.S. FASTs in usage. And it seems to punch below the weight of the considerable distribution heft delivered by the TVOS and smart TVs that deliver it into homes.
According to research released by Hub Entertainment Research, Samsung’s Tizen is the second most proliferate TVOS in the U.S. behind Roku.
The Samsung TV Plus platform is hardly buried in the well-penetrated Tizen OS — in fact, it’s the first thing Samsung smart TV owners usually see when they turn on their sets.
So it should rank reasonably close to Roku Channel in terms of usage, or one would think.
And despite being tied to a well-proliferated smart TV brand and OS, the well-regarded ARF-DASH TV Universe Study published back in November ranked Samsung TV Plus well behind Tubi, The Roku Channel and Pluto TV in terms of U.S. household penetration.
Also, according to Nielsen’s latest monthly U.S. TV usage ranker, The Roku Channel is the No. 1 FAST in America in terms of consumption, tallying 2.5% of all TV usage in June. Among FASTs, Tubi ranked second, accounting for 2.2% of usage. SVOD HBO Max (1.4%) was the least watched streaming platform Nielsen tracked, and Samsung TV Plus doesn’t even show up on the radar.
While it competes in a very competitive FAST market, Samsung TV Plus continues to add content to its menu. Earlier this week, Samsung announced the addition of TV5MONDE, the global French-language entertainment network to Samsung TV Plus in France.
Article updated with additional information and graph on FAST penetration from ARF-DASH TV Universe Study.