Samsung’s CES conference just finished, and during the funride of news they announced that they’re bringing a number of new apps to their Smart TV’s, adding to their current selection of ‘entertainment, music, sports, fitness and social networking’ apps.
Despite the fact that most won’t be available for Australian readers, the company is bringing Univision’s UVideos, YuppTV, WatchIndia. TV, Crunchyroll and Viki Premiere to the platform. They’re also looking to take advantage of the limitless channel-count of the internet with multicultural programming expected in 2013, although details weren’t specifically mentioned.
In the US, ESPN and Turner will be made available too, as well as Delivery Agent, ‘the leader in shopping-enabled entertainment’. Basically, it’s a place for advertising, coming at your expense over your likely capped internet plan. An example was the ability to buy items from the New Girl TV series, such as the character, Jess’s, dress.
More content for the US includes Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Cloud Player, Redbox Instant by Verizon, Bravo, Showtime Interactive, Discovery Channel, CNBC Real-Time, ESPN ScoreCenter, Hulu Plus, MTV Music Meter, Netflix, TIME TV, WSJ Live, MLB.TV and an upgraded version of Verizon FIOS TV with support for 75 channels.
Australian’s can find Spotify, Crackle, CNET, Angry Birds and possibly AOL On, although there is no way to judge the experience of using these kinds of apps on a TV.
The content, while comparatively reasonable, remains uncompetitive alongside real television in Australia, with only ABC offering local catchup, and internet content either being expensive or unappealing for Australian buyers.