Exclusive: Samsung is Planning to Launch TV Dongles in India

The company had successfully tested these in September last year. Once launched these might head straight into competition with the likes of Amazon TV Firestick and Google Chromecast

“Samsung may launch its TV dongles within the first half of 2019 in India,” industry professionals, aware of the developments, told EFY Group. The move may also end the mark of Samsung’s TVs with inbuilt setup boxes in the country. It is to be noted here that the Korea-based consumer electronics giant has already collaborated with Nagra Kudelski for the development of these TV Dongles.

The industry professional said, “It is a big possibility that the launch of Samsung’s TV dongles will take place on the sidelines of its 8K TV announcements in the country. The company has successfully tested these in September last year.”

A website that goes by the name of TVkey explains these dongles as, “A simple USB security dongle you can plug into the back of new Samsung TVs that lets you watch your favorite pay-TV channels in beautiful 4K UHD. The low-cost USB dongle, TVkey, ensures content protection without a set-top box or second remote. The innovative technology was developed together by Samsung and NAGRA.”

The size of video content market in India

A recent report by research and consulting firm Media Partners Asia (MPA) had said that Indian online video industry may touch $1.6 billion revenue figures by 2022. The video content market size, in 2017, as per the report, was an estimated $340 million in.

Vivek Couto, Executive Director, MPA, had outlined, “Advances in telecoms and payment infrastructure continue to point the way forward for the online video sector in Asia Pacific, although business models and regulations continue to evolve in a sector that’s still nascent in most territories.”

Possible partnership with Sundirect and one more DTH company

The industry professional told EFY Group that probable partnerships with a Gujarat based DTH provider and SunDirect is on the cards for Samsung. He said that Samsung will leverage these companies DTH capabilities to source content on TVs through its yet-to-be-launched dongles.

The industry professional added, “These dongles have been developed keeping security in consideration. Samsung dongles will run only when the user is able to input encrypted keys or passwords.”

TV dongle launch with Samsung 8K TVs?

The company is also planning to launch 8K TVs in India as well. In fact, Samsung has already showcased its India bound 8K QLED TVs in an event held in Porto, Portugal from February 12 to 22.

We had earlier reported that Sony is also planning to launch its 85 and 98-inch 8K TVs in the country in March 2019. It is a big possibility that both the companies will launch their 8K TVs in second or third week of March 2019.

It is to be noted here that Samsung and Sony might launch 8K TVs in the range varying from 65-inch to 98-inch display screen sizes. Once launched, these 8K TVs will compete against each other to capture the TV market in the country.