Samsung’s free ad-supported TV and video on-demand streaming service, Samsung TV Plus, which launched in Australia towards the end of 2020, has reported a total of 88 million monthly active users and a 50% increase in global viewership year-on-year.
The company says that the platform now has more than 3,000 channels and tens of thousands of on-demand options. It claims that viewership growth is propelled by increased consumption across both linear and on-demand video service, with on-demand viewing surging more than 400% year-on-year globally.
Its current growth is being driven by Gen Zers, Millennials, and Gen Xers in the US, who over-index in the key advertising 18-49 demographic.
But Samsung TV Plus is also casting a wider net beyond the US and is continuing to enter more markets with recent launches in Singapore and the Philippines, and soon in Thailand, thereby expanding its availability to 30 territories worldwide.
Samsung TV Plus can be accessed exclusively across the Samsung TV, Galaxy, Smart Monitor, and Family Hub lineups. It includes the 2024 Samsung Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, OLED, and The Frame TVs.
Samsung has attributed rising streaming subscription costs as one of the reasons that users are migrating to its free content. “As viewers grow wary of rising subscription prices and continue to pour into free alternatives, major publishers and content owners have embraced the opportunities in FAST (free ad-supported TV) and AVOD (advertising-based video on-demand),” the company said in a statement.
In Australia, Netflix, for example, raised its subscription prices this year. The cost of a premium subscription rose from A$22.99 to A$25.99, a standard subscription went from A$16.99 to A$18.99, and a standard subscription with ads climbed from A$6.99 to A$7.99.
According to market research firm Omdia’s data, global FAST services have grown about 20 times over the past five years. The market size is expected to reach A$17.71 billion by 2027.
Samsung TV Plus recorded approximately 5 billion hours of cumulative global viewing time last year, and is expected to exceed 10 billion hours by 2025, according to Kim Yong-su, head of the global service business team of the visual display division at Samsung Electronics.
