Samsung TV Plus and ZDF Studios Agree on Launch of 20 European FAST Channels

"Bares für Rares" and "ZDF kocht!" on Samsung Plus TV available for the first time as FAST Channels

Launch of 20 European FAST channels agreed
"Bares für Rares" ("Cash or Trash") and "ZDF kocht!" from October 11 as FAST Channels on Samsung TV Plus
Refresh of the documentary channel "Terra X"

Berlin, October 11th, 2023

Samsung TV Plus and ZDF Studios are expanding their existing partnership and will build 20 European FAST Channels together in the future. The start is made by the launch of two new channels in Germany.

On Wednesday, October 11, two new channels will be launched on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung's premium FAST offer, in cooperation with ZDF Studios. With "Bares für Rares" ("Cash or Trash") and "ZDF kocht!" Samsung TV Plus presents two new channels that no other streaming or FAST service offers in this form. Samsung TV Plus thus expands the cooperation with ZDF Studios, which has existed since the launch of the documentary FAST channel "Terra X," to a total of three channels.

ZDF Studios expands distribution strategy
For ZDF Studios, the cooperation with Samsung TV Plus represents the expansion of a distribution strategy that sees selected highlights from the ZDF Studios catalog newly curated to serve the "lean back" needs of users. Samsung TV Plus is pre-installed on around ten million Samsung Smart TVs in Germany, providing the optimal basis for tapping into this new type of distribution.

Curiosities and cooking achieve the best ratings
"Bares für Rares" ("Cash or Trash") is one of ZDF's most popular broadcast series, Germany's biggest "junk show" and a successful format in the ZDF Studios catalog. The afternoon show about art and curiosities with host Horst Lichter regularly achieves the highest ratings on ZDF. "ZDF kocht!" is a new FAST channel that brings together highlights from the shows "Küchenschlacht" ("Kitchen Battle"), "Topfgeldjäger" ("Money Meals"), "Stadt, Land, Lecker" and "Kerners Köche." This new offering will be available around the clock, seven days a week. Cooking shows are extremely popular on Samsung TV Plus, as evidenced by the ratings for "Hells's Kitchen," Jamie Oliver's cooking show from the United Kingdom.

Refresh for "Terra X"
In summer 2022, the first collaboration between ZDF Studios and Samsung TV Plus started with the high-quality ZDF documentary series "Terra X" on Samsung TV Plus. The format and topics, such as nature documentaries, adventure, history, travel and expeditions, will remain. In addition, new program content will be added. Among the new content are "Maithink X," the popular science show with Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim; "Jahr100," Mirko Drotschmann's documentary series about the first century AD; and "Unsere Kontinente" (The Six Continents Revealed"), a mini-series about nature and culture on each continent.

Alex Hole, VP at Samsung Europe: "It has been our goal from the beginning to establish Samsung TV Plus as a premium provider for FAST programs. The cooperation with ZDF Studios is a milestone in our programming history. Content is king in the highly fragmented FAST environment, and the cooperation with ZDF Studios allows us to offer our TV viewers new premium content in the entertainment and documentary genres."

Dr. Markus Schäfer, President and CEO of ZDF Studios, adds: "For ZDF Studios, FAST channels represent an attractive business area with a wide range of growth prospects. In August 2022, for example, the "Terra X" channel on Samsung TV Plus was launched extremely successfully. We are now looking forward to launching equally successively 20 more FAST channels across Europe together with our partner Samsung, thus accelerating our FAST growth. We'll start in Germany with the formats "Bares für Rares" and "ZDF kocht!", which are ideally suited for FAST channel positioning."

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About Samsung TV Plus
Samsung TV Plus is free TV, with no subscription, no sign-up, no additional device and no credit card. It is pre-installed on all 2016-2022 Samsung Smart TVs and can be downloaded to Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets in select countries via Google Play and the Galaxy Store. Samsung TV Plus instantly delivers an ever-growing number of channels across multiple genres, including news, sports and entertainment, as well as a video-on-demand library of your favorite movies and popular shows. The free, ad-supported video service is available in the UK and 15 other European countries, all you need is an Internet connection. For the latest information on Samsung TV Plus, visit samsung.com/tvplus.

About ZDF Studios
ZDF Studios is a commercial subsidiary of ZDF, one of the largest TV broadcasters in Europe. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Mainz, Germany, the ZDF Studios Group operates more than 30 direct and indirect subsidiaries and affiliates in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom spanning TV production, distribution and services. The parent company, ZDF Studios, is responsible for global programme distribution, realisation of international co-productions, acquisition of licences and merchandising of successful programme brands under its own name, for ZDF and third parties. ZDF Studios has the largest German-language programme inventory in the world and a constantly growing range of international productions, consisting of series and mini-series, television films, documentaries and children's programmes.

The companies of the ZDF Studios Group cover the entire value chain from the development of scripted and unscripted TV content to production, marketing and monetizing, including TV and streaming licences as well as merchandising and online rights. The positioning of ZDF Studios as an integrated media company enables the development of innovative, outstanding and high-quality programmes and makes the Group an attractive workplace for German and international talent to flourish in a very inspiring and creative environment.

Contact ZDF Studios
Christine Denilauler (VP Marketing and Corporate Communications), ZDF Studios GmbH, Erich-Dombrowski-Str. 1, 55127 Mainz/Germany, Tel.: +49 6131-9911130, e-mail: christine.denilauler@zdf-studios.com, www.zdf-studios.com