Kim Yong-su, head of the global service business team of visual display division at Samsung Electronics, speaks in a press conference held on the sidelines of the IFA trade show in Berlin, Friday. (Samsung Electronics)

BERLIN -- As TVs evolve into platforms offering limitless content-based enjoyment, Samsung Electronics has revealed its ambition to lead the free ad-supported television market, or FAST, by providing distinctive services and diverse content.

“In line with the AI era, we will actively explore and implement measures to become the optimal platform by advancing and enhancing basic AI usability,” Kim Yong-su, head of the global service business team of the visual display division at Samsung Electronics, said at a press conference held Friday on the sidelines of the IFA trade show in Berlin.

As streaming-based content consumption continues to grow, FAST services have recently gained attention due to accelerated "streamflation" caused by rising over-the-top subscription fees.

Citing market research firm Omdia’s data, Kim said that global FAST services, which have rapidly expanded in mainly North America and Europe, have grown about 20 times over the past five years.

The market size is expected to reach $11.8 billion by 2027. The domestic FAST market, led by Samsung TV Plus, is also expected to experience the fastest growth among Northeast Asian markets, alongside the surge in high-quality Korean content.

Samsung TV Plus, which was first introduced in 2015, is a free and ad-supported streaming service based on the company’s in-house developed Tizen OS. Currently, 270 million smart TVs around the world are equipped with it.

As a result, Samsung TV Plus has become a highly influential global platform, offering approximately 3,000 channels and 50,000 VODs across 27 countries. Providing a differentiated viewing experience with its rich content, Samsung TV Plus recorded approximately 5 billion hours of cumulative global viewing time last year, and is expected to exceed 10 billion hours by 2025, Kim explained.

Samsung TV Plus is enhancing its competitiveness by offering premium content across a wide range of genres, such as live streaming, movies, sports, music, children’s programming and culture.

In June, Samsung TV Plus began providing services to three Middle Eastern countries and plans to expand to Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, in October, bringing its services to a total of 30 countries.

“Samsung Electronics will serve as a global platform in the rapidly growing FAST market, discovering major local IP channels and expanding them globally so that more viewers around the world can enjoy them,” Kim said.

“We’ll also provide a gateway for popular Korean content to enter overseas markets. We will take the lead in globalizing content,” he added.