Samsung TV Plus began with a customer-acquisition advantage most streaming services could never replicate: the consumer paid Samsung for the device that would distribute Samsung’s service.
In September 2015, Samsung added 33 internet-delivered channels to its smart TVs in South Korea. Programming from CJ E&M and EBS appeared alongside traditional TV channels, using familiar channel numbers in the 500s and 600s. Users did not need to install an app, create an account, or buy another device. Connect the TV to the internet and Samsung could deliver the service through a software update.
Samsung was trying to make internet video easier to watch. The design also gave the company a way to turn every compatible TV it sold into a distribution endpoint for a Samsung-controlled streaming service.
The hardware transaction put Tizen in the home. Tizen controlled the interface and discovery layer. TV Plus added programming and advertising inventory on top of it.
33 Channels Hid a Much Bigger Distribution Advantage
The original TV Plus addressed a basic smart TV problem.
Internet video was available, but accessing it usually required finding an app, opening it, navigating another interface, and deciding what to watch. Samsung instead placed scheduled internet programming inside an experience that already behaved like TV.
That eliminated several points of friction that streaming services routinely spend money trying to overcome: app discovery, installation, registration, authentication, and repeat engagement.
TV Plus also operated at the system level rather than depending entirely on viewers deliberately choosing a standalone service. That gave Samsung access to the same control point that now makes TV operating systems gatekeepers over discovery, advertising, revenue sharing, and data.
The distribution advantage came from owning the operating environment before the viewer chose what to watch.
Samsung Got Paid to Acquire the Household
Most streaming services spend money to acquire a customer.
Samsung sold them a TV.
The hardware generated revenue immediately and placed Samsung software inside the household for years. Once connected, that TV could continue surfacing Samsung services without requiring another hardware purchase or a separate customer-acquisition campaign.
By May 2020, Samsung said TV Plus had grown to 518 channels across 11 markets. By December, it said the service offered 742 channels across 12 countries and was accessible on more than 60 million Samsung smart TVs.
Samsung also added a dedicated TV Plus button to 2020 smart TV remotes in the United States and Canada, reducing the path from turning on the TV to entering the service to a single press.
That placement has significant commercial value. Research showing that 51% of streaming TV viewers install suggested apps during device setup while 56% rarely add another app after the first day illustrates how heavily viewing behavior can be shaped before the consumer develops a routine.
Samsung controlled that setup environment, the home screen, and eventually a physical shortcut on the remote.
A Hardware Sale Became a Recurring Media Relationship
Samsung was already developing an advertising business around its TV footprint.
Samsung Ads began selling placements on smart TV home screens in 2015 and later expanded into CTV and OTT video inventory. TV Plus gave Samsung inventory inside a viewing environment it controlled more directly.
The company could distribute channels, manage placement, package its own programming, sell advertising, and use TV-level viewing signals to improve targeting and measurement. Instead of monetization ending primarily with the hardware margin, a connected TV could continue generating revenue through advertising, content promotion, application distribution, data products, and Samsung’s own streaming service.
That model now sits at the center of the TV OS business. Tizen and webOS have extended TV economics into software licensing, advertising, FAST, data, and discovery, giving manufacturers additional ways to monetize the installed base after the device is sold.
Samsung TV Plus became one of those recurring revenue layers.
FAST Connected Samsung’s Distribution With Someone Else’s Programming
Samsung owned the TV footprint but did not need to finance a traditional network-sized programming slate to fill it.
FAST allowed studios, broadcasters, digital publishers, and independent rights holders to package libraries, reruns, news, reality programming, niche sports, creator content, and other assets into continuously programmed channels. Samsung supplied distribution and monetization infrastructure while content partners supplied much of the programming.
By the end of 2020, Samsung said TV Plus was working with roughly 300 broadcast networks, content platforms, and digital creators.
Each additional Samsung TV expanded potential distribution, which made the service more attractive to channel partners. Additional programming increased available viewing inventory, while more viewing created additional advertising opportunities for Samsung and participating publishers.
Because FAST is built around free access funded by advertising rather than a recurring subscription decision, Samsung could place programming in front of TV owners without asking them to add another monthly bill.
The customer had already paid for the most important part of the distribution stack.
Samsung Became a Programmer
Samsung expanded TV Plus well beyond third-party channel distribution.
A major 2022 expansion included additional VOD programming, local news, exclusive content, and more Samsung-owned-and-operated channels. At the time, Samsung said TV Plus had more than 220 channels in the United States, more than 1,600 globally, and over 50 company-operated channels across categories including news, sports, and entertainment.
Samsung also said the service was available across 24 countries and could reach 465 million devices across TV and mobile. That figure described potential device reach rather than an active audience.
The programming operation has continued to expand. Samsung now says TV Plus carries more than 4,300 channels across 30 countries and approximately 66,000 VOD titles, with programming spanning live sports, concerts, creator channels, news, entertainment, and branded offerings involving companies and personalities including Spotify’s The Ringer, Billboard, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Mark Rober, Dhar Mann, and Michelle Khare.
Owning more of the programming layer gives Samsung additional control over what appears prominently inside TV Plus, which audiences it can aggregate, which inventory it can sell, and how much of the economics remain inside Samsung’s own ecosystem.
A business that began by distributing third-party channels had acquired functions traditionally divided among the TV manufacturer, distributor, programmer, audience-data provider, and advertising seller.
About That 100 Million MAU Number
Samsung says TV Plus surpassed 100 million monthly active users globally in January 2026, up from the 88 million it reported in October 2024. Samsung also says streaming hours increased 25% during 2025.
The MAU figure is self-reported and should be treated cautiously.
Samsung has not publicly disclosed enough methodology around the 100 million figure to make it directly comparable with audience metrics from Roku, Tubi, Pluto TV, Nielsen, or other streaming and measurement companies. For a service integrated into the TV operating environment, definitions around device activity, service engagement, and individual viewers can materially change what an MAU count represents.
That measurement problem extends well beyond Samsung. Streaming MAU figures can combine incompatible definitions of activity, devices, accounts, and actual viewing, which makes headline comparisons between services less useful than they appear.
Samsung’s distribution footprint is easier to evaluate. The company says TV Plus now operates across 30 countries with more than 4,300 channels and availability across multiple Samsung device categories.
The precise size of the active audience remains dependent on Samsung’s definition and measurement methodology.
The TV Became More Valuable After It Was Sold
TV Plus changed what Samsung could economically extract from a TV after the hardware transaction.
A Samsung smart TV could generate hardware margin when purchased, then continue producing value through advertising inventory, content distribution, discovery, audience data, application promotion, and Samsung-owned programming.
Control of the operating system made those businesses possible because Samsung could influence what consumers encountered before they entered Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, or another streaming service.
That control point has become increasingly valuable as media economics concentrate around companies that own the route between consumer attention, discovery, and monetization.
Samsung entered that position through hardware rather than content.
The TV business therefore stopped being limited to the margin available when the device changed hands. Each connected set created an installed relationship Samsung could monetize for years, and TV Plus gave the company its own programming and advertising business inside that relationship.
For TV manufacturers, the long-term prize is no longer just selling the screen.
It’s owning more of the economics generated every time someone turns it on.
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