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Two Words With Cristina Sala, Italy Country Lead Samsung TV Plus

Two Words With Cristina Sala, Italy Country Lead Samsung TV Plus
Samsung TV Plus is making significant strides in Europe, launching a range of new channels and content with their free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service. They’re focusing on key areas like news, sports, and entertainment to reach wider audiences, with particular emphasis on partnerships with regional content providers.

In Italy, this means an expansion of their collaboration with Nexo TV, featuring four new channels that bring popular blockbusters to Italian viewers, including genres like comedy, westerns, thrillers, and seasonal holiday films. This move is part of Samsung's broader strategy to enhance its presence in Europe's growing FAST market, where they’re already seeing a nearly twofold growth in viewer consumption.

Formatbiz had a chance to meet Cristina Sala, Italy Country Lead Samsung TV Plus and she was happy to answer some questions.

What is Samsung's TV Plus strategy and what are its development plans?
Samsung TV Plus is on a mission to change the free streaming market by delivering premium TV content within a free, ad-supported setting. Whether it’s family entertainment, education, live sports, history or drama that viewers are searching for, we are constantly broadening the type of content on Samsung TV Plus to cater to every need. New and exciting collaborations with major content providers are at the top of the priority list. Our newly announced Autumn channel lineup features blockbuster and classic content that has captured large audiences across Italy’s major networks and will now be distributed by Samsung TV Plus through Nexo TV channels for free from today.

Samsung TV Plus in Italy: how is the Italian market and what's the local strategy?
In Italy, 84% of Samsung Smart TV owners are now streaming and keen to discover new shows, turning to CTV for all their entertainment needs. Our data shows that 27% of Italian viewers open three different apps when watching TV, highlighting that viewers are eager to discover new shows and find inspiration from their TVs.
Our local strategy is to work with the country's major content providers, as well as global partners, to offer our Italian audiences content they want to watch the most - all for free. By keeping the viewers are the heart of the Samsung TV Plus strategy, we not only deliver high-quality content that caters to all viewing niches, but we’re also playing a key role in broadening the reach for both local and international content partners, encouraging new fans to their programmes.

 What can you tell us about the channels you have just announced? What content is STVP focusing on?
Our Autumn lineup features a whole host of new Nexo TV channels in the Italian market - Comedy Time, Western Time, Crime Time and a Christmas Time seasonal channel. Samsung TV Plus is focusing on making the shows that matter to Italy more available than ever before, which is why our partnership with Nexo continues to be so successful with our viewers. In Q4 of last year, our first four Nexo TV channels saw a 422% rise in total minutes viewed per month and a 663% rise in advertising requests for Nexo. We’re excited to launch even more must-watch content to Italian viewers.

We are also delivering more educational and documentary content from esteemed content providers such as the BBC Earth channel which launched in Italy last month, bringing award-winning BBC Studios content to Samsung TV Plus from breathtaking natural history productions to inspirational and educational documentaries.
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