Samsung reportedly looking into offering Internet TV service

[Shawn Knight]

Samsung is said to be holding preliminary talks with media companies with regard to starting its own Internet television service. Sources familiar with the matter tell Bloomberg that Samsung has met with media companies to see how much they would charge to carry their networks via the Internet. One source said Samsung may be interested in offering the same collection of channels globally, rather than having region-specific bundles.

If true, Samsung would join a growing list of companies interested in trying their hand at over-the-top delivery of traditional television programming.

Dish Network and Sony already offer online TV services with Amazon, Hulu and YouTube gearing up to launch similar outfits in the near future. Apple is also said to be interested in the space although its long-rumored project has yet to materialize into a end-user product.

Samsung is in a great position to offer such a service as many of its smart television sets are connected to the Internet. What’s more, it has millions of smartphones and tablets already in the hands of consumers which would serve as yet another way to people to watch. The South Korean electronics giant could even leverage the service to sell more devices, further bolstering its bottom line.

When asked for comment, Samsung said that its approach is to continue to develop strategic collaborations with content partners rather than compete with them.

Discussions are said to still be in an early stage and as always, things could fall apart before deals are hammered out.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/64906-samsung-discussions-media-companies-internet-tv.html

 

[Uncle Al]

The bottom line is what do I get and what does it cost me? No local stations available - forget it!, No national feeds like news, Nat Geo, etc - forget it! In other words, we don't need yet another site pandering old movies or even just new movies. If you're going to compete with the cable companies, then compete!

Now, if you want to REALLY get my attention, put offer internet services that contractually prevent the IP from choking down the speed, vastly raising prices, etc. In other words, give me both services for under $100 a month.

OK, if I'm going to dream, I am going to DREAM BIG!

 

[wiyosaya]

Yet another internet TV service?

What is it with these companies offering these services? Do they think cord-cutters cut the cord for any reason other than the very fact that they felt price they were paying was way too high for the value they were getting??? I know I am speaking for others, but for me, I cut DishNetwork because I was paying $87/mo for TV I hardly watched. I did not cut the cord because it was/is the latest fad in TV watching, but with all these companies springing up, I have to wonder whether their execs have their heads on straight or simply just where the sun does not shine.

Right now, I have Netflix and OTA with MediaPortal that does all my OTA DVR functions. I am only paying for Netflix, obviously, and the amount of stuff that my wife and I record OTA alone is almost more than we can watch, plus, we have Netflix on top of this.

My wife and I liked to watch "The Good Wife" and even though CBS announced that it is making a spin-off that we would like to watch, CBS said that they were only going to air that on their streaming service. I told my wife about that, and we both agree that we will wait until it is in reruns or on another streaming service rather than pay an extra $6/mo to CBS for what would amount to only one show that we would watch on their streaming service.

And when ATSC 3.0 starts rolling out in 2017/2018 OTA reception will be free of the multipath problems that plague ATSC 1.0 - thus enabling reception of perhaps dozens more channels in many reception areas.

I am tired of companies like this trying to attach to my wallet like a permanent parasite. So Samsung, stuff your internet TV service where your execs have their heads.