"Fallout" show on Samsung TV Plus
Fox agreed to acquire Roku for $22 billion to gain greater control over the screen viewers encounter before choosing what to watch. Samsung already owns a version of that screen, and studios are increasingly learning to rent it.
Samsung TV Plus is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service built into Samsung sets. It has carried complete seasons of Prime Video series and temporary channels built around major film franchises, all without requiring viewers to subscribe. The service is turning that position into a marketing channel for other companies’ releases.
The shift is not simply from paid television to free television. It is from promoting a program with a trailer to promoting it with the program itself.
Takashi Nakano, vice president of content and programming at Samsung TV Plus, oversees the programming strategy behind those campaigns and discussed them in a video interview. The service reaches more than 100 million monthly active users across 30 countries. Samsung can measure activity on its own screen in detail. The harder question is whether it can prove demand somewhere else.
