Samsung TV Plus - TV & Movies

Review by eFreeware

The most striking thing about Samsung TV Plus is the scale of what it gives away. The developer describes a catalog of more than 750 live channels alongside thousands of movies and shows on demand, all at no cost, with no subscription and no set-top box. For anyone who has priced up a streaming bundle lately, that combination is unusual enough to be worth a closer look.

It is built for people who want something playing without planning what that something is. If you like flipping through channels rather than scrolling a watchlist, or you want news and familiar series running in the background, the app is designed around that habit. It is also a natural fit if you already own a Samsung device, since the service is built into those devices rather than being an extra app to install.

A cable-style lineup without the cable bill

The core of the app is live television, and the channel count is the headline. News is well covered, with ABC News Live, CBS News, LiveNOW from FOX, NBC News NOW, CNN Replay and Bloomberg Originals among the options, so keeping up with national and local coverage is straightforward. Beyond news, the lineup spreads across entertainment, movies and sports, which is what makes the service feel closer to a traditional channel guide than to a single-purpose streaming app.

What appeals to me here is the low-commitment nature of it. You do not have to decide in advance what to watch, because there is always a channel already running. The developer also says new channels, shows and movies are added regularly, which matters for a service built on browsing: a fixed catalog gets stale, and a rotating one gives you a reason to check back.

The trade-off is that live TV is only as good as its schedule at any given moment. With hundreds of channels, some will be showing something you want and plenty will not, and there is no way to know which until you look. That is the nature of the format rather than a flaw in the app, but it does mean the experience depends on how comfortable you are with grazing.

Full seasons and movie channels on demand

Alongside the live side, there is an on-demand library of shows and films. The developer points to complete seasons of series such as The Walking Dead, Dateline, Law & Order, Top Gear, Hell's Kitchen, Conan O'Brien TV and Dr. Who. Full seasons rather than scattered episodes are the important detail: they let you settle into a show properly instead of sampling one installment and hitting a wall.

For films, the app leans on themed channels rather than a single bottomless catalog. Paramount Movie Channel, Hallmark Movies & More, The Movie Hub and CINEVAULT: Classics are the ones named, which suggests a mix of mainstream hits and older titles. If your taste runs to a specific niche, the selection will not cover everything, but the spread across those channels is broad enough to give most viewers something to land on.

The on-demand side is where the app competes most directly with paid services, and it does so by being free rather than by being exhaustive. I would treat it as a place to find something watchable rather than a library built around new releases. For casual viewing, that is a reasonable exchange.

Where you can watch it, and what you need

The app is available on Galaxy devices, and the service is built into 2016 to 2023 Samsung Smart TVs, Smart Monitors, Family Hub refrigerators and the web. On those Samsung devices there is nothing to download, which is the point of the pitch: it is television that is simply there when you turn the screen on. On a phone or tablet, the app is the way in.

One requirement is worth stating plainly: streaming needs an internet connection. There is no way around that, and it applies whether you are watching live channels or pulling something from the on-demand library. The app is rated Teen, so the catalog is aimed at a general audience rather than young children.

The install figures give a sense of how widely this has been picked up. With more than 100 million installs and a 3.8 average across roughly 26,500 ratings, it sits in the territory of a service people try in large numbers. The app first arrived in September 2020 and was last updated in September 2026, so it is an established product rather than a new experiment.

Free, with ads doing the paying

The app costs nothing to download and there are no in-app purchases. Advertising is part of the experience, and that is the arrangement you are accepting when you use it. Nothing is hidden behind a paywall or a subscription tier, and there is no upgrade path to consider.

That makes the value calculation simple. You are trading your attention for access to a large live and on-demand catalog. Whether that trade feels fair depends on your tolerance for commercials, and it is the single biggest factor in whether the app suits you.

I would not describe this as a replacement for a paid service you already subscribe to for specific shows. It is a free layer on top, useful for the times when you want something on and do not want to think hard about it.

How it compares with the alternatives

Against a paid streaming subscription, the difference is straightforward: you give up a curated library and gain a much larger but more uneven selection at no cost. Against a dedicated news app, the app offers breadth rather than depth on any single outlet. Against free ad-supported services in general, the distinguishing feature is the tie-in with Samsung hardware, where the service is already present.

If you own a recent Samsung television, the app is effectively part of the furniture, and there is little reason not to use it. On a phone or tablet, it competes with whatever else you already have installed, and the question becomes whether the live channel format appeals to you at all.

The people most likely to get value from it are those who enjoy browsing channels, want free news coverage, or like having full seasons of familiar series available without paying. Anyone who prefers a tightly curated, interruption-free library will find the sheer volume of channels less appealing.

Worth installing for free-channel browsing

Samsung TV Plus is a genuinely free streaming app with an unusually large lineup: more than 750 live channels, thousands of on-demand titles, news from the major US outlets and full seasons of well-known series. It costs nothing and carries no in-app purchases. For a service with that much content, the barrier to trying it is essentially zero.

It suits viewers who like the channel-surfing approach to television, who want free news coverage, or who own a Samsung device and would rather use what is already built in. If you want a hand-picked catalog, the model here will not match your preferences, and that is worth knowing before you settle in.

My recommendation is to install it and treat it as a complement to whatever else you watch rather than a replacement. The app is free, the catalog is broad, and the commitment required to find out whether it fits your habits is minimal.