Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo sat down with Sang Kim, the senior vice president of Samsung, to gauge how the company is navigating changing viewer behavior amid the growth of streaming. 

Closing Bell

Samsung Embraces the Future of Streaming

Welcome back to closing Bell and Cheddar news everyone as the streaming landscape gets more competitive services are looking at options to offer cheaper ways to watch while still being able to provide top quality content that often means adding ads, but it's not a new idea, streaming free ad supported Tv has existed for years. And cheddar news senior reporter Michelle Castillo sat down with the senior vice president of Samsung to gauge how the company is navigating changing viewer behavior. Well, thanks so much for joining us today saying, so we're seeing a lot of different platforms. Ad ad supported tiers, you have netflix, you have Disney Plus, but Samsung has been there for quite some time. So do you think we're reaching the mass adoption of fast, ad supported television? Yeah, so we started Samsung tv plus in 2015 and we've been at it one of the first players out there. Um, and you know, if you look at the industry today, there's a lot of fast players out there. However, I think we bring something unique to the table here where the software and hardware intersects. So, you know, with the capabilities that we have, we're over in 24 countries worldwide and uh, you know, were distributed over 465 million devices worldwide. So I think the fast is here, uh, and it hasn't reached a critical mass. I think there's a lot more headroom, but I think it's here to stay. Let's talk about your offering Samsung tv plus you recently relaunched it, how does it reach today's streaming viewer? So today, um, you know, as I said, we reach 465 million uh devices out there and it's really the content that speaks for itself. So, you know, we have premium free content that reaches the audience globally and um you know, we continue to invest in premium content, but also if you look at the content offering itself, it's the type of content that the audience might not have been able to discover. Um and this is the streaming platform that enables us to bring that content stream, find the audience and and bring that so that it's easily discoverable and engage with the content instantly. So one thing everyone's asking right now is will consumers watch television with advertising? They're so used to being able to skip through ads, you know, if the DVR it or if they're streaming it. So do you, have you noticed that people are willing to accept ads? You know, advertising is nothing new. It's been around for a very long time since tv was around. Right. And I think for the advertising, um the technology for streaming is actually making advertising more interesting. So for example, um the ad load itself for linear tv live, it's very difficult, it's almost impossible to adjust that add load as you dynamically for streaming technology, we actually do play with the ad load. So um for us, our philosophy is, you know, we obviously want to maximize um the revenue for the partners and for us, however, we actually do also want to serve less ads if the demand isn't there. So I think the consumers on Samsung Tv plus, we'll see, we'll have a great watching content with various ad loads that Samsung Tv plus, can you talk a little bit about the changing consumer? So for example, cheddar news, which is a Samsung tv plus partner, the majority of our viewership is watching over the top now they're streaming viewers, they don't traditionally watch on traditional tv, so how can platforms or services like yours capitalize on that shifting viewer? Yeah, so the landscape has definitely changed, there's so much choices and so many content that's sitting out there. So for us the landscape has changed where Discovery becomes really the main challenge for us to put the right content at the right right time, make it discoverable for our audience because one um viewer might want to be interested in watching sports content versus the other in documentary. So we have various ways of making this discovery possible. So for example, we have a product called Universal Guide, this is we aggregate all different content and then, you know, make it exposed to the user so they can find that content easily. Um we also have the way the Tv launches the apps as well as content on the screen, so with a few clicks that you can get to the content immediately, so with ever changing landscape and also the amount of content that's coming out, their discovery is one of the benefits that we provide, so we can get that content out there easily now. What is your prediction for the greatest place for the, for growth and opportunity in 2023 in the tv space? Yeah, so in the tv space, definitely streaming. So, you know, you asked me earlier have we reached the critical mass, the opportunities, I think there's a lot of headroom, as I said, so streaming in video with Samsung Tv plus for us, there's a lot of opportunity for us to innovate both in terms of how we stream content, how we provide ads and how we actually onboard partners, how quickly can we get partners, um their content onto our platform um and find their audience on Samsung Tv plus and for streaming as well, we think everything is going streaming. So if if you look at what we just launched this year called Samsung gaming hub, it's really bring your own controller and you can play all cloud gaming including xbox stadia and you know, a lot of other partners that we have. Um so streaming and cloud on the cloud allows us to really be a console list and and play that and zero latency that we have on the on the technology, so it's available on our 2022 Samsung tv, so we think, you know, if you look back uh look back 10 years ago where streaming was for media, we we hardly ever access and reach out for physical media anymore, both in music and in video. Well I think that's where the technology is headed for gaming as well. So do you think we still have consumers out there that haven't adopted this free, ad supported television and they're still out there here in the U. S. And beyond. You know, contents free. And if you look at the offerings of our content is not only premium but we're bringing content for example like news but not just national news, local news. So I think these are the type of innovation coverage that we're bringing. So if you haven't experienced uh fast free advertising streaming tv um I think you should and it will be available when you have Samsung tv in your house. Well thanks so much for joining us today, thank you for having me. Okay and thanks there again to saying kim senior vice president of Samsung Electronics America and cheddar news, senior reporter Michelle Castelluccio