From What I have read on various forums, the reason why Samsung will not support our TVs by providing the version of BBC iPlayer with 4K capability is a not a technical one but a licensing issue. So, if this information is correct, then we have a situation where Samsung are not prepared to pay the BBC to update the 2015/16/17 sets.
Now this raises the interesting question as to should we not be blaming the BBC for trying to monetise their 4k HDR material at the expense of us Samsung owning UK TV Licence players who have indirectly contributed to the cost of the production of this 4K material, but, are now prevented from watching it.
On the other hand, many of us have paid well over £1000, some even over £2000 for their TV sets, and bearing in mind the profits Samsung have made out of us at those prices, I would imagine the cost per TV set of providing the necessary iPlayer for previous years models would be relatively small. Whilst not trying to defend Samsung, I can understand their reluctance to pay out additional costs on models where such additional costs may not have been factored in to the retail price of those sets when they were first sold. But, it would appear other manufacturers are prepared to do it.
I can also appreciate the cash strapped BBCs need to raise additional funding wherever they can to cover the cost of their technological developments, but charging manufactures extra for the 4k player seems an illogical way to cover such costs, as clearly some are not prepared to pay, even though their sets can play the material, which all seems rather counter productive.
When colour was introduced we paid extra for a colour TV licence, perhaps this might be a better approach for the BBC, in the future, when they have a range of programming in 4k, rather than charging manufacturers extra to include a 4k player. After all we have to pay extra for 4k HDR on services such as Netflix.
As this appears to be a stalemate caused equally by the BBC and Samsung it’s unlikely that programmes such as Watchdog will take up this cause, so we can only hope that Samsung does the right thing by its customers and finds some way to update these sets.
Surely Samsung must realise they have a lot of angry customers and I would hope that they would take some time to explain their position on this forum rather than issuing bland generic statements that raise more questions than they answer.
