Samsung Mobile has announced a partnership with ITV to bring the Android ITV Player app exclusively to Samsung devices.
Offering access to the past thirty days of ITV content from channels including ITV, ITV2 and ITV3 for catch-up opportunities, the new Android ITV Player app will be exclusively available to Samsung smart devices.
Compatible with Samsung devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread or later, the Android ITV Player allows users to browse through recommended programmes or search for their favourites over a 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi connection.
The app is available to download now on Samsung smart devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Note 8.0 and Samsung Galaxy Mega duo, but anyone owning another Android device like the Google Nexus 4 or the HTC One won’t be able to until the exclusivity period ends.
“We are very excited to have launched the new ITV Player app on Samsung devices,” said Online Product Director of ITV, James Micklethwait. “The fragmentation of the Android ecosystem is well known therefore, as a commercial broadcaster, it makes sense of us to partner with the leading manufacturer of Android devices to further increase our technical knowledge of the operating system.”
Blaming fragmentation for the exclusive agreement with Samsung Mobile, ITV has said “we plan to launch the app onto other Android devices in the future.”
Free to download from the Google Play and Samsung Apps stores, the ITV Player Samsung exclusivity is bound to irk other Android handset users, especially as the BBC iPlayer is available to everyone and iPhone or iPad users can still use the ITV Player iOS app.
“At Samsung, we are committed to providing our customers with the latest range of content and apps,” said Simon Stanford, Vice President of IM Division at Samsung UK. “People are increasingly watching programmes on their way to work, between meetings or on holiday, and this partnership means they can now catch up on their favourite ITV programmes on our devices wherever and whenever they choose.”
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