Samsung May Be Next To Bring TV To The Web

Samsung Electronics has been reported to be speaking with one or more "entertainment companies" about selling an online TV service. This would be another competitor for the likes of HBO Go, Netflix, and Hulu – though we're not yet completely convinced that the company would take the time to create such a service without already having the content bank to back it up. Word from Bloomberg is that their sources suggest "the plans are still in the early stages, and Samsung may ultimately decide not to pursue the concept" – which generally means they probably wont.

This same source suggests that Samsung is asking "media companies" how much cash they'd charge to bring their "TV networks in a bundle of channels over the Web." Whether or not that means the channels would be presented just like TV, commercials and all, is still unknown.

Samsung provided a statement this week on the matter, via Bloomberg: "Our approach is to continue to develop strategic collaborations with content partners rather than compete with them."

Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, and Apple have all (according to tips, not the companies themselves) all been working on creating similar pairings with cable content companies for internet TV. These sorts of collaborations would allow users to access many different sorts of content through a single device or service rather than having to purchase subscriptions to multiple services at once, as the situation is today.

These sorts of deals would also potentially bring content to the web that, for now, is only available on cable TV networks (and subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases in physical format).

The big question here would be whether or not Samsung would release an internet TV software product inside its own hardware ecosystem exclusively. Generally that's the case – but you never know!