Samsung's free OTT service TV Plus to launch in India in 2021

Electronics giant Samsung is the latest to eye India's burgeoning OTT sector as it prepares to launch its video streaming service TV Plus in 2021.

The free service, which offers 742 channels across genres, reaches over 60 million Samsung Smart TVs across 12 countries. It will roll out in India along with several other European markets shortly, Samsung announced.

"In 2021, Samsung will continue to expand TV Plus to other markets, with plans to launch in Mexico, India, Sweden, and more European countries. Samsung Galaxy device users can also expect added functionality and additional devices to become available in the coming months," the company said in a statement.

Samsung TV Plus recently rolled out in Australia and Brazil, besides being available in the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, and South Korea.

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Samsung's decision to expedite the launch of TV Plus in India may have been a result of the explosive growth in online entertainment following the pandemic-induced tailwinds that forced people to stay home. India is now the world's fastest-growing OTT market that is estimated to be worth $5 billion by 2023, according to BCG.

Seline Sangsook Han, Senior VP, Visual Display Business, Samsung Electronics, said,

"Throughout the pandemic, we have seen how consumers spend time at home and how much they value access to great media content. We have seen TVs become the centre of entertainment – from being a source of news to a streaming on-demand partner."

"With our latest expansion into new markets and content line-up, we hope that TV Plus continues to be a premium at-home destination for Samsung Smart TV users all over the world," he added.

As per the Google Play Store listing, the TV Plus app is accessible on all Samsung Smart TVs since 2016 as well as on Galaxy S10, S20, Note10, and Note 20 devices. The service doesn't require any subscriptions or credit card-based log-ins, but users would need a pre-existing internet connection to stream the content.

TV Plus has partnered with 300 of the world’s leading broadcast networks, and lets users stream news, sports, cooking shows, music, movies, shows, and so on.