Samsung TV Plus signs up creators for six new markets

Samsung TV Plus is widening its creator-led line-up. The subscription-free streaming service has introduced new creator channels in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom, and extended existing creator channels to Brazil and Mexico.

What is launching where

In the United Kingdom, a partnership with 208 Studios has produced three channels. Happy Place is built from Fearne Cotton's acclaimed podcast and her audience of more than 15 million social media followers. Golf Life pairs golf with comedy from Ange, Jimmy and Tubes Bullard, who have more than three million followers between them. JOE Media brings news and entertainment from the British media brand, which counts more than 30 million followers across platforms.

Luke Nguyen's World covers Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The programme follows the Australian-Vietnamese chef, restaurateur and television personality Luke Nguyen through food, culture and travel, and carries more than 95 episodes across nine seasons.

Brazil and Mexico get Mark Rober TV, an existing channel now extended into both markets. It runs as a dedicated 24-hour science and engineering channel, with dubbed content from the former NASA engineer, who has more than 79 million followers across platforms.

Why a television platform wants internet creators

Samsung's framing is that the creator economy and television are converging, and that the company sits in the middle of the two. "The creator economy has become a global phenomenon, reshaping how audiences discover and engage with content," said Salek Brodsky, head of global TV Plus at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung TV Plus is at the forefront of this evolution, giving the creators a global platform to grow their brand and connect with millions of viewers through television."

The new channels join a line-up that already includes Dhar Mann, Michelle Khare, Smosh and The Try Guys. Samsung puts TV Plus at 100 million monthly active users worldwide.

The additions span lifestyle, food, sports, news and science rather than a single genre, which says something about how the service is being positioned against subscription streamers: less a box-set library, more a free, always-on grid built from brands that already have an audience somewhere else.

Our opinion

Samsung is doing the sensible thing here, and it is worth saying out loud that it is not the same as making good television. The economics of free ad-supported streaming reward volume and recognisable names, so buying a creator's existing audience and re-cutting it as a channel is the cheapest possible way to fill a schedule. Samsung gets programming it did not have to commission, and the creators get a Living Room channel number that vanity metrics cannot buy.

The risk sits with the creator, not the platform. A channel built from a podcast or a YouTube back catalogue is only as durable as the brand attached to it, and television audiences are far less forgiving of a thin repeat than a phone screen is. Mark Rober TV works because the man builds things on camera and there is genuinely a 24-hour appetite for that. Golf Life is a harder sell. Samsung has bought itself a distribution advantage; whether these channels survive their first renewals depends on whether any of them are worth watching twice.