Vizio and LG Finally Add Discovery+ and HBO Max Apps on Their Smart TVs

• Vizio has added BET Plus and Discovery Plus apps on its smart TVs.
• LG has added the HBO Max app on TVs running webOS 4.0 and above.
• Both open up a galore of new content for their customers, and it’s only another step in the enrichment process.

LG and Vizio have added new streaming services for the owners of their smart TVs to access, opening up large collections of amazing content for them. Since most smart TV vendors use their own OS for their products, developers of streaming apps have to port their software for these platforms specifically, and this can only come after an agreement with the vendor. For example, LG uses WebOS, Vizio uses SmartCast, Sony and Philips use Android TV, Panasonic uses Firefox OS, and Samsung users Tizen OS or Orsay OS.

LG smart TVs will now get the HBO Max app, and the ‘LG Magic Remote’ will also get the relevant voice command that can launch the service. This addition applies to models made after 2018 running webOS 4.0 or higher. Also, the app will be available only in the United States, select territories in Latin America, and the Caribbean. LG already had Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Plex, and HBO Max is one of the fastest-growing streaming platforms having 70 million users right now.

Vizio is adding two new streaming services, the Discovery Plus and ViacomCBS’s BET Plus. These come on top of Vizio SmartCast, including Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. Discovery Plus comes with a galore of content, including over 55,000 episodes from a large set of channels. As for BET Plus, this is an SVOD service that costs $9.99 per month, offering films and series episodes with several interesting originals.

Of course, as both Vizio and LG TVs already supported casting through sticks, tablets, set-top boxes, and smartphones, one could already access the above services via some other device and send the stream to their TV screen. Having the apps right on the TV and natively supported by the OS though eliminates lags, connection hiccups and saves the time needed to set things up. Also, it saves on bandwidth and enables users to connect their TVs to 5G WiFi for better streaming performance.