Samsung TV Plus

About Samsung TV Plus

Samsung TV Plus is a free ad-supported streaming television service, the category the trade abbreviates to FAST. It is a grid of live channels running to a schedule, in the manner of cable, with a library of on-demand films and shows alongside. Almost nobody goes looking for it: it arrives already installed on Samsung televisions and sits in the channel list next to whatever else is plugged into the set, which is the entire commercial idea. Samsung's US page states the service is 100 percent free with no subscription needed, carries 300 plus live channels and thousands of on-demand titles, and works on Samsung Smart TVs released after 2016, Smart Monitors, Projectors, Family Hub and Samsung phones and tablets. You do not need a Samsung account to watch; signing in only adds continue watching, favourites and reminders. Samsung sells the advertising, which is why a hardware company runs a television service at all.

How big is Samsung TV Plus, and what do the numbers mean?

Samsung said in January 2026 that TV Plus had passed 100 million monthly active users globally, with over 4,300 channels worldwide across 30 countries, running on Samsung TVs, Galaxy phones, XR headsets, Galaxy Tab, Smart Monitor and Family Hub. Samsung also reported streaming hours up 25 percent year on year and 92 percent retention after three months. MediaPost, covering the same announcement, noted the figure had grown from 88 million monthly active users in late 2024.

Treat the headline with care. A monthly active user on a service sitting in the channel list of a television from the moment it is switched on is not the same as a monthly active user on an app somebody chose to install. Distribution by default is a real advantage and it is also what inflates the count. All of these figures come from Samsung rather than from an independent measurement firm.

How many channels does Samsung TV Plus actually have?

The answer depends entirely on the denominator, which is why published figures look contradictory.

Samsung's own US page advertises 300 plus live channels. The Desk reported in April 2025 that Samsung TV Plus carried more than 700 FAST channels in the United States, which it described as more than any rival platform. Samsung's January 2026 global announcement said over 4,300. These are not in conflict: the global number counts every regional variant across 30 countries, the US numbers count one market, and different counts include or exclude on-demand-only streams. What lands on your television is a local lineup of a few hundred, weighted toward news, sport, reruns, reality and single-show channels that loop one series.

Samsung has bought some genuine exclusives rather than only licensing filler. Samsung Newsroom announced Letterman TV, a channel of Late Show material with over 4,000 hours of content plus new commentary from David Letterman, exclusive to Samsung TV Plus and launched on 11 December 2024 in the US and Canada. Samsung's Canadian newsroom separately announced an exclusive Conan O'Brien TV channel for Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Which exclusives you can reach depends on your country.

Do you need Samsung hardware to watch it?

Mostly, but not strictly. XDA Developers reported that Samsung opened a web player at samsungtvplus.com, reachable from any browser whether or not you own a Samsung device, with many channels playable without signing in. XDA also noted the web version is not offered in every country where the service runs.

It has also reached some televisions Samsung does not build, through Tizen rather than through an app. StreamTV Insider reported that Samsung licensed its Tizen operating system to third-party manufacturers, putting TV Plus on sets from Akai, Bauhn and Linsar via Tempo from October 2022, with Vispera through HKC and Sunny and Axen from Atmaca following, across Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

One widely repeated claim needs correcting. Reports in January 2023 that Samsung TV Plus was coming to TCL televisions described discussions, not a launch. The Desk noted at the time that neither company's executives confirmed it, and that most TCL sets in the US run Roku's operating system rather than Tizen. There is no confirmed TCL rollout.

The practical position: unless your television runs Tizen, there is no Samsung TV Plus app to install the way there is for Tubi or Pluto TV. Off Samsung hardware this is a browser tab, not a living-room service.

Samsung TV Plus against Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel

eMarketer's 2026 briefing on the FAST market puts The Roku Channel first on US viewers at 97.3 million, Tubi second at 92.5 million and Pluto TV at 68.6 million, and notes the top three together accounted for 5.7 percent of all US TV viewing in May 2025. It projects 131.4 million US FAST users in 2026, or 54 percent of connected TV users, and records 1.8 billion hours watched in August 2025, up 43 percent year on year. It also observes that viewer growth has outrun advertiser spending, which is why ad loads across the category are lighter than the audience alone would suggest.

The shape of each service matters more than the ranking. Tubi leads with a large on-demand catalogue you browse by title, with live channels secondary. Pluto TV, owned by Paramount, is closest to Samsung TV Plus in feel: a channel grid plus Paramount library content, and it runs on nearly everything. The Roku Channel is the same idea inside Roku's hardware and app. Samsung TV Plus is the most channel-led and least catalogue-led of the four. For choosing a specific film, Tubi is the better tool. For putting something on without choosing, Samsung TV Plus is built for exactly that.

Content overlap is heavy, because FAST channels are licensed rather than owned. Outside the handful of exclusives, do not expect a library you cannot find elsewhere.

Who is better served elsewhere

Anyone who does not own Samsung or Tizen hardware should probably use something else. Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel all ship proper apps on almost every television, streaming stick, phone and console, and the content overlap is heavy enough that you give up very little.

Anyone who watches by title rather than by channel is better off with Tubi. A schedule-based grid is a poor instrument for finding one particular film, and the on-demand section here is smaller than on the catalogue-first services.

Anyone who dislikes advertising has no route out. There is no paid ad-free tier, unlike the ad-supported plans on subscription services where paying more removes the breaks. If ad breaks are the thing you are escaping, no FAST platform is the answer.

Anyone chasing new releases or prestige originals should look elsewhere entirely. FAST catalogues are licensed back catalogue, news, sport and reruns. That is the business model working as intended, not a gap to be closed in a future update.

Privacy-minded viewers should weigh what makes the service free. Advertising on a smart TV is targeted, and part of the value of a service pre-installed on a television is the viewing data it produces. Samsung provides privacy controls on its televisions, and they are worth reading before concluding the service costs nothing.

It does suit Samsung TV owners who want live news, sport and background viewing without another subscription, second sets in spare rooms, and anyone leaving cable who wants a channel grid that behaves like the one they are giving up. On that brief it is one of the best options available, and it is already installed.