Samsung‘s new Gear S2 smart watch and Galaxy Tab S2 tablet will ship with a pre-loaded CNN news app, the news network announced Thursday.
The app, which has been custom-built for Samsung devices, will also be available for download for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices, and offer access to HD-quality news video from the network. The S6 edge will also display headlines as part of its edge ticker. On the watch, CNN will present breaking news headlines on the watch, offering the ability to load the entire story on the accompanying mobile app.
The partnership was announced as part of Samsung’s introduction of the Gear S2 watch at IFA in Berlin Thursday. The Gear S2 is Samsung’s latest take on smart watches, combining a round display with a rotating bezel that doubles as an input method, similar to the way Apple uses the crown of the Apple Watch to let users navigate menus and select apps.
Pre-loaded app deals aren’t new. Publishers frequently strike deals with device manufacturers to instantly reach millions of potential users. The hard part is to get all those device owners to actually use a pre-loaded app. CNN hopes that the video quality will do the trick: This is the first time the network has streamed 1080p HD video to mobile devices, a spokesperson said.
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Consumers will still have to log in with their pay TV subscription credentials to watch CNN’s live feed, she added.
