Samsung Electronics has reportedly turned down an offer from Netflix to include a dedicated button on all its upcoming smart TVs. It’s believed that the button, once pressed, would instantly open the Netflix application, which is home to over 20,000 instantly accessible movies and shows.
It’s unclear why Samsung rejected the offer. However, Business Korea’s sources suggest that it’s because the South Korean firm wanted to maintain a partnership with the streaming giant without changing the design of its TV products.
An industry official writes:
Netflix is to imprint its logo on TVs just like Intel did in the PC market in the past. But, Samsung thinks that it is not desirable for a manufacturer to directly choose the priority list of various contents, such as cable, TV, Internet, YouTube and game, for consumers.
It’s also quite feasible that Samsung turned down the partnership opportunity because it’s working on its own platform that will be exclusive to its devices.