News24 launches Samsung Smart TV app

News24 and Samsung South Africa have combined to produce the first local Smart TV application. The News24 app can be accessed from any Samsung Smart TV and offers the hooked-in user news reports, the latest sports results, financial indicators, celebrity gossip and much more. The move mirrors the recent UK launch of the BBC News app on Samsung TVs.

The app takes the form of a scrolling news ticker which displays the latest information at the bottom of the screen. At the press of a button, the user can open any story from the news ticker and view it in full screen mode.

The Smart TV has opened up LED and LCD screens to the Internet. With a wireless internet connection and a keyboard, the Smart TV transforms into a full-fledged web-browsing experience. Apps running on consumer electronics was once the exclusive domain of mobile phones, but have now started appearing on the new generation of smart TVs.

Product manager of News24, Ronald Bach claims the app will give users a truly integrated digital experience, saying, “News24 users want to be able to get breaking news whether they’re in front of their PC, using their mobile phone or watching television. Internet-enabled TV is clearly the next big thing and so the News24 app is the next step in offering our users an integrated digital experience across all platforms.”

Corrie Labuschagne, Product and Marketing Manager for TVs at Samsung South Africa says that the app, “Underlines its commitment to delivering upon consumer expectations and through these types innovations believe we are continuing to do just that — in identifying key needs and requirements of the consumer and business market alike. In fact, this year we hope to bring out at least another five locally developed TV applications, if not many more, that address the core needs of our consumers. It is through these joint ventures with leading brands locally that our goal to develop strong content, creating smarter lifestyles, will be met with no hesitation and will continue to demonstrate Samsung as a leading technology innovator.

Our take

The app is tiny (under 200kb), takes seconds to install and adds a needed level of interactivity to the Smart TV. The scrolling app is unobtrusive and navigating to the full News24 app takes a single button press. The text is easy to read and is formatted well for the LED screen. The appropriate News24 channels such as Woman24 and Sports24 are easily navigated to with the remote control.

An excellent app to download.