Verizon FIOS App Now Available On Some Samsung Smart TVs

Last Tuesday, Verizon and Samsung announced that Verizon’s FiOS App would now be available on Samsung’s 2012 editions of their Smart TVs and Blu-ray Player. This new addition to Samsung’s Smart Hub App Store will allow customers who already have either a FiOS TV or FiOS Internet subscriptions to download and enjoy the app. This makes Verizon the first TV provider in the United States to make this available on Samsung’s Smart TVs and Blu-ray Player.
The App is launching with the ability to watch 26 live FiOS TV channels including CNN, MTV, HBO, TBS, TNT, Food Network, HGTV, Comedy Central, and HBO just to name a few. It also gives those with compatible Smart TVs or Blu-ray Player access to over 20, 000 FiOS on demand movies. The FiOS App also offers parental controls, allowing parents to lock out certain features and viewing material to younger viewers and allowing for access to block channels and on demand movies, not to mention rentals and purchases, through the use of a PIN number.
Verizon and Samsung have made available on these Smart TVs and BLu-Ray Player what many other companies, such as Dish Network and DirecTV, need set top boxes to accomplish. This frees up space in many people’s living rooms, not to mention the reduction of clutter from cables and extra remotes. This gives Verizon’s FiOS a leg up on some competition, and gives Samsung an advantage over some other media streaming devices such as the Apple TV device. However, this does leave many left out. Not everyone owns a Samsung Smart TV or Blu-ray Player, not to mention only those that are the 2012 models are compatible. Someone who bought a 2011 model just before the 2012 model became available will not be able to down load the FiOS App.
This does open the market for other competitors to Samsung and Verizon to team up and show new offering much the same as the FiOS App. It makes many begin to wonder if this could be the future of television and streaming in general, and for many the hope is yes. The simplification this provides by allowing quick access to many of the United States favorite live TV shows without the need for a set top box will make many very happy (not to mention nostalgic of the days of analog cable). People have continuously been adding devices to their living rooms to add accessibility to their entertainment centers, such as Apple TV, the Roku, or the recently announced Google Nexus Q. This new announcement however, actually reduces the number of those devices, allowing to get for free (as long as you’re an existing Verizon FIOS Customer) what most had to pay for that additional gadget to get.
It will take some time before we see the impact, if any, from this new announcement from Verizon and Samsung. Will it be a game changer, or will it have little tangible affect on an already large and growing segment of the entertainment business? This could give Samsung an edge in the Smart TV and Blu-ray market as we get ready to enter another holiday season. We will just have to wait and see, and all those who don’t own an applicable Samsung device will keep waiting to get their hands on this FiOS App.

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