Instagram TV App Expands to Samsung Smart TVs With Episodic Series and Live Broadcasts

Meta announced Monday that Instagram for TV is now available on Samsung smart TVs across the United States, bringing the app to the majority of connected TV devices in the country. The expansion covers Samsung models from 2020 onward and adds interest-based channels, phone-to-TV casting, and the ability to watch Stories on the big screen.

With Samsung included, Instagram for TV reaches the three largest connected TV platforms in the US market, following previous launches on Amazon Fire TV in December 2025 and Google TV in February 2026. The app is US-only with no announced international expansion dates.

Episodic Series and Live Formats on the Way

Beyond the device expansion, Meta is exploring longer-form video formats for the TV app. The company said it is testing episodic series that unfold across multiple episodes, building on a feature called Series that began rolling out to select creators on Instagram and Facebook on June 2. Series allows creators to group Reels into sequential episodes with a dedicated hub on their profile.

Meta is also working on Live on TV, which would bring live creator broadcasts to television screens for the first time. Additionally, the company is testing a dedicated home for horizontal videos within the TV app, acknowledging that content designed for phone screens does not always translate well to larger displays.

New features arriving with the Samsung expansion include:

• Interest-based channels that organize Reels into categories like comedy, sports, music, and trending content.
• Phone-to-TV casting that lets users send Reels from their phone, including videos from the Saved tab.
• Story viewing on the big screen, already available on Fire TV and Google TV.

Why Meta Is Pushing Into the Living Room

YouTube held a 13 percent share of all US TV watch time according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge, the largest share since tracking began in late 2023. YouTube’s connected TV business is growing faster than any traditional streaming service, and every minute spent watching Reels on television is a minute not spent on YouTube or Netflix. Meanwhile, TikTok is facing content quality issues, with a Kapwing study finding that nearly 60 percent of videos shown to new accounts are AI-generated junk, potentially giving Meta an opening to position Reels as a higher-quality alternative.

Meta has been investing heavily in creators. The company launched Creator Fast Track in March, paying established TikTok and YouTube creators up to three thousand dollars per month to post Reels on Facebook. In 2025, Facebook paid creators nearly three billion dollars through its monetization programs, a 35 percent increase year over year, with 60 percent of that going to Reels. Connected TV advertising also represents a growing revenue opportunity, with advertiser intent to increase spending on connected TV at 82 percent net intent according to industry surveys, compared with 56 percent for paid social.

This is Meta’s second attempt at Instagram on television. IGTV launched in 2018 as a standalone app for longer videos but failed, with only seven million downloads and removal of the IGTV button from Instagram within 18 months. This time, Meta is layering longer formats onto existing short-form Reels rather than launching a standalone product. The episodic series, Live on TV, and horizontal video hub are described as explorations rather than confirmed launches, with no timeline provided.