Consumers continue to let their affinity for FAST and AVOD television services be known. In the latest example, Samsung TV Plus has already attracted 88 million monthly active users worldwide. With growth springing largely from viewers in the 18-49 demographic, the service has become the most-used U.S. app on Samsung TVs. The metrics put it on par with other top competitors in the free ad-supported TV space: Roku, Tubi and Pluto TV. As it becomes a global content force, Samsung TV Plus continues to expand its global presence with recent launches in Singapore and the Philippines, with Thailand soon to come.

The service is now available in 30 territories worldwide. According to a newsroom post, the platform’s year-over-year growth is more than 50 percent.

In the U.S., the company says the strong showing is due mainly to its boom with Gen Z, Millennial and Gen X viewers, who over-index in the key advertising 18-49 demographic and largely shun traditional subscription-based TV.

Viewing for AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) has surged more than 400 percent YoY globally, making the platform “an even more powerful engine for audience engagement,” Samsung suggests.

With more than 3,000 channels and “tens of thousands of on-demand options,” Samsung notes TV Plus has become a destination “in the distribution strategies of many of the world’s most established media companies, sports leagues, independent studios, and creators.”

StreamTV Insider reports that while the South Korean company previously shared “viewership growth metrics and numbers around device availability,” this marks Samsung’s first public release of MAU figures for its FAST service.

Adding perspective, StreamTV writes that “TV OS competitor Roku as of the end of June counted 83.6 million streaming households for its smart TV and streaming device platforms,” while as of the end of Q2 smart TV maker Vizio “had 18.8 million active accounts for its SmartCast TV OS platform, which offers the built-in WatchFree+ FAST service.”

Tubi, meanwhile, “reported over 81 million monthly active users as of September” according to The Wrap, which notes that “Pluto TV, which no longer breaks out its MAU figures, reported having 80 million as of April 2023.”

While The Wrap says Samsung TV Plus “has not yet reached the threshold required to be broken out individually” on Nielsen’s monthly performance index The Gauge, it notes that Samsung attributes the absence to the U.S. over-indexing.

Related:
Samsung TV Plus: Everything About the Free Streaming Service, Android Authority, 10/7/24
Samsung TV Plus Adds New Spanish Channels, Advanced Television, 10/23/24
Samsung TV Plus FAST Adds Collection of Korean Content On-Demand, StreamTV Insider, 10/3/24
Kartoon Channel and Samsung TV Plus Launch Free Kids’ Channel, Broadband TV News, 10/13/24