Samsung officially confirmed that it will be unveiling three new smart TV services in the upcoming CES 2017 in Las Vegas on Jan. 5 to 9.
According to the South Korean company, what sets these services apart is the fact that they are tailored according to the consumers' content preferences. They will be provided via the company's Smart Hub platform and could possibly compete with other media content providers such as Amazon, Netflix and Apple TV.
"At Samsung, one of our top priorities is ensuring that we are closely in tune with what consumers want and need from their smart devices and electronics," Won Jin Lee, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics, said in an official press statement. "We continue to innovate our Smart TV offering in order to provide the content experiences that our customers have come to know and expect from Samsung."
The smart TV services are simply called as Sports, Music and TV Plus. Those labels should already indicate the type of profiles that Samsung is talking about.
TV Focused On Sports
For this service, users will be provided a main navigation page that contains information on sport contents that they are interested in such as the game schedules of the teams they are rooting for.
The gist is to streamline the browsing experience by putting all relevant data in one place rather than having users skim channels to find what they are looking for.
Samsung is calling this curated data posted within a personalized user interface.
Smart Music Service
Now music enthusiasts will surely love this feature. According to Samsung, it will not only be confined to music searching because the service can also identify songs and titles that are used in live TV and television programs.
It is not yet clear if Samsung is using some form of AI or advanced algorithm for this product. It will not be surprising if it does because it has the ability to make song recommendations based on user profiles and possibly their interaction with the platform.
All About TV
The TV Plus service has already been rolled out in Southeast Asia and is Samsung's own take on the video on demand service. Premium subscribers will be able to watch their favorite TV shows and videos by just heading to the TV Plus channel in their smart TVs.
This service is already available in the United States. Samsung has tapped Fandango and Rakuten for the premium TV and video content.
At this point, it is not yet clear if Samsung will be integrating ads on these new services. But its smart TV has earned the ire of a growing number of users displeased with the way they are made to watch ads embedded in the television's UI. Some promotional contents initially appear in discreet locations but they could invade up to three-fourths of the screen if accidentally clicked.
