LG Electronics Inc. will expand its streaming service venture onto its smart TVs, the company said on Tuesday, as the tech giant gears up to increase and diversify its presence during the stay-at-home trend brought upon by the pandemic.
The company revealed that within this year, it would launch LG channels in 11 European countries, including Switzerland and the Netherlands.
LG’s free content streaming service, LG Channels, was set up in 2015 and is currently available in 14 countries providing around 1,600 channels. With these additional 11 countries, LG Channels will be available in 25 countries with 1,900 channels. In South Korea, users can watch 144 channels for free.
LG to make use of the Korean Wave to its advantage
A Korean cultural wave is prevalent worldwide, with its music and tv reaching new heights of popularity. Content from YG TV – offering exclusive content of YG Entertainment and New K. Movies – a channel dedicated to Korean movies has become available on LG Channels in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and four other European countries.
LG will bring popular content providers like Pluto TV and Rakuten TV to LG channels in Europe and Latin America.
Software and UI update
LG has also planned to update its software so that its streaming service can be available to people using the webOS platform on their TVs. Earlier, LG had said that around 20 TV manufacturers, including RCA, Konka, and Ayonz, would release TVs installed with its webOS platform.
LG said it would also apply a new user interface to LG channels to enhance content recommendation features. From next month, the UI update for its old smart TVs released after 2016 will begin.
LG said that amidst the stay-at-home epidemic, its free content service has been gaining popularity, and the number of users and their viewing time on LG channels has doubled from a year earlier as a result.
