Samsung customers can now enjoy access to 24/7 news, dedicated AFL, NRL, V8 Supercars channels, 24/7 BigPond Sports News, live horse racing from Sydney and Melbourne and a music channel called BPM, streamed direct to compatible Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players and home theatre systems.

Samsung will use the world’s first Widevine live adaptive TV channels that simulate free to air TV but deliver through the existing broadband internet connection. Widevine’s video optimisation technology works by monitoring the available bandwidth at the device and adaptively choosing the appropriate bitrate of video to play back, eliminating constant buffering interruptions that take place as bandwidth fluctuates in the home.

“Launching BigPond TV direct to Samsung devices over the internet using Widevine’s adaptive streaming technology is a world first,” says Telstra IPTV head Ben Kinealy.

“Our BigPond TV audience is growing and now in partnership with Samsung, more people will have access to our great content. News, sports and our music video channel, BPM, which is one of our most popular channels, all have rapidly growing audiences. BigPond TV is available un-metered for most BigPond broadband customers,” Ben says.

The launch comes hot on the heels of the arrival of BigPond Sport Game Analyser on Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players in September. Launched in time for the 2010 NRL finals series, BigPond Sport Game Analyser is initially available for Rugby League and State of Origin games but will be expanded to include AFL from the 2011 season.

Samsung Electronics Australia’s group manager of AV, Evan Manolis, says, “We’re committed to delivering the latest in local on-demand TV content to our customers.”

”Partnering with Telstra to deliver BigPond TV on our products not only allows us to offer the very latest in content, but also provides our customers with world first Widevine technology – for a superior IPTV viewing experience,” Ben says.

BigPond TV is available now only via the Samsung Apps service on all new internet enabled Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players and home theatre systems, as well as the Telstra T-Box unit. Other TV manufacturers will offer the service at a later stage. The service is free to use and un-metered for most BigPond internet access customers, however data charges may apply for users who are not BigPond customers.