What the job really involves
Getting your channel into a TV app store is mostly paperwork and patience. Samsung TVs install apps from Samsung's store, which you reach through Samsung Seller Office; LG TVs install from LG's store, which you reach through LG Seller Lounge. Each store tests your app on its own televisions before anyone can install it, and each has its own rules about who may publish where.
| Samsung | LG | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you sign up | Seller Office, with a Samsung account | Seller Lounge, as an individual or a company |
| Who signs the app | You, with your own author and distributor certificates | LG, when you submit it |
| Where a new seller can launch | The United States only, until Samsung makes you a partner | No partner step |
| What the review covers | A pre-test on upload, then Samsung's verification test on its TVs | A pretest, a function test and a content test |
| A new version of the app | Goes through certification again | Needs its own approval again |
Whose name goes on the store page
Decide this first. On Samsung, the name and ID on your Seller Office account come from the Samsung account and can't be modified. On LG, the seller type decides what viewers see. LG's developer site says an individual seller appears under a seller ID, while a corporate seller, signed up under a licensed business name, appears under the company name. If viewers know you as a church, a club or a company, the corporate route is the one that shows that name.
Our advice, not a store rule: open both accounts with an email address the organisation owns, not a volunteer's personal one. The Samsung account that signs in to Seller Office is also the one you use to create your signing certificates, so it outlives whoever happens to set it up.
Where your viewers live decides which store comes first
Our advice: if most of your audience is in the United States, start both stores at once. If it is not, start with LG, which has no partner step, while the Samsung contract is being arranged. Samsung's membership guide says everyone joins Seller Office as a public seller, and public sellers can launch apps in the United States only. Launching anywhere else needs partner status: you first sign an offline contract with Samsung headquarters or a local Samsung subsidiary, then send a partnership request through Seller Office for a Samsung content manager to approve.
- Ask early. Our advice: raise partner status as soon as your account is open, because it can take a while.
- Pick countries before you submit. Samsung says that once an app is submitted, its service country can only be changed by agreement with your content manager.
- Write a name and description per language. Samsung asks for both in each country's language when an app is released in several countries.
The Samsung certificate is the key to every future update
Samsung apps are signed with an author certificate that you create in Tizen Studio's Certificate Manager. Samsung's certificate guide is blunt about why it matters: an update must be signed with the same author certificate as the original app, or it can be treated as a different app rather than an update. Lose the file or its password and your channel's app is frozen at its last version.
Our advice, beyond Samsung's own instruction to keep a backup:
- Create the author certificate once, with the organisation's Samsung account. It is the one that must never change.
- Keep the author
.p12file and its password in two separate places, such as a password manager and an offline copy, and write down who holds them. - Never make a fresh author certificate for an update. If you change computers, import the existing file instead.
With Primcast you can add both .p12 files and their passwords in your control panel and it signs the Samsung package for you. If you would rather the files never leave your computer, the build without certificates gives you the Tizen source to sign in Tizen Studio yourself.
Give the testers everything on day one
Missing test details are a common reason an app comes back, and Samsung treats a feature its testers cannot try as a critical defect. Samsung's certification Q&A says test details you edit after requesting release do not reach the testing team: if something important was missing, you have to drop the request and submit again. LG rejects an app whose self-checklist is missing or too thin, and its FAQ warns that an older copy of the checklist will not be approved.
- Give the testers something to watch. Samsung requires the app to reach your live server, not a test server, and a feature its testers cannot try fails certification. Tell them when your channel is on air, and that library videos play at any hour.
- Say there is no sign-in. Testers look for login details when an app needs them; tell them none are needed.
- Let the testers in if you limit countries. If your streams only play in certain countries, Samsung asks you to list them and either allow access through a VPN or allow its testing IP addresses, which Seller Office lists in its self-checklist guide.
- Download a fresh LG checklist every time, mark an item not applicable only when it truly is, and write the UX scenario: a short walk through each screen and what each button does.
- Check your programming as well as the app. LG's content test rules out sexual content, realistic violence, discrimination, crime and drugs, and gambling, so what the channel shows is part of the review.
Choosing a launch date you can keep
Our advice: hold any announcement until both stores have said yes. Samsung's certification usually takes a few weeks and LG's quality check several weeks, and Samsung notes that its time also depends on tester availability, the number of rounds needed to fix defects, and holidays at its testing teams. By default Samsung releases the app as soon as it passes; for a set time you ask your content manager or open a 1:1 Q&A ticket.
| What changes | New store review? |
|---|---|
| New videos in your library | No, the app shows them by itself |
| A new logo or a changed link inside the app | No, the app picks these up by itself. The icon and images on your store pages are separate; you change those in each store. |
| A new version of the app | Yes, at Samsung and at LG |
| The Samsung app's default title, category, icon or country | Not changeable while certification is under way |
Samsung will not take an update for a model group while an earlier version is still in certification there. LG says a change to the app itself after approval needs its own approval, or the app can be removed. Updates to your channel's videos, logo and links are not a new version of the app; a new package is. Our advice: batch your changes into fewer, planned versions.
How Primcast builds the app from your channel
If you stream with us, the Samsung and LG smart TV app comes with every paid live streaming, CDN and VOD plan, so you skip the development and go straight to the store work above. It runs on Samsung and LG sets made in 2018 or later, and it is built for a remote: Watch live on the home screen, your library with Continue watching, search and favourites, and an About screen with QR codes for your website and social pages.
- Fill in your channel profile: a square logo at least 1024 pixels across, a cover image at least 1920 by 1080, and your contact details.
- Confirm in your control panel that you hold the rights to what the channel streams, then build. The LG package arrives unsigned for LG to sign; the Samsung one is signed with your certificates.
- Take your packages, the store images download and your privacy policy address into the stores, following our Samsung publishing guide and LG publishing guide.
The download covers icons and backgrounds, not screenshots. Samsung's form takes four at 1920 by 1080 and LG's takes one main screenshot plus two to five more, taken in each maker's emulator or simulator or on a real TV. Samsung also asks for an application UI description document, so prepare that alongside LG's UX scenario.
Running a radio station rather than a video channel? The station apps on the Premium and Platinum radio plans also run on Samsung and LG TVs.
When this app is the wrong fit
- You need viewers to pay or sign in. The app has no paywall, no accounts and no advertising. For paid viewing, look at the paywall in the Cue Player on your own site.
- You want a programme guide or push notifications. Neither is part of the app.
- Your audience watches on other boxes. It is made for Samsung and LG sets only, not Fire TV, Android TV or Apple TV.
- You want no mention of us on screen. A small "Powered by Primcast" credit shows beside your channel name while the live player's controls are up.
Questions people ask
- Do I have to write code to get my channel onto Samsung and LG TVs?
- Not if you stream with Primcast on a paid video plan: the control panel builds both packages from your channel profile. You still open the seller accounts, create the Samsung certificates in Tizen Studio and fill in each store's forms yourself, because the app is published under your name.
- My viewers are mostly in Europe. Can Samsung still carry my app?
- Yes, but not straight away. A new Seller Office member can launch in the United States only; other countries need partner status, which starts with an offline contract with Samsung. Our suggestion: publish on LG first while that conversation runs.
- What happens if the Samsung author certificate is lost?
- Samsung only treats a new version as an update when it carries the same author certificate as the first one. Without that file and its password you cannot ship an update to the existing app, so back it up the day you create it.
- Do I need to resubmit every time I add videos?
- No. New videos, a new logo and changed links reach viewers without a new version. You only go back through review when there is a new version of the app itself.