Samsung's 2019 Smart TVs will support iTunes Movies and TV Shows, and Apple AirPlay 2, Samsung said Sunday at CES in Las Vegas.

Smart TVs made in 2018 also will be able to play Apple content via a firmware update.

Apple content can be accessed from the smart TVs via an exclusive app. Samsung customers will be able to use it to access their existing iTunes library, as well as browse the iTunes Store to buy or rent from a selection of hundreds of thousands of movies and TV episodes.

iTunes movies and TV shows will work seamlessly with Samsung's Universal Guide, its new Bixby assistant, and Search, to create a consistent user experience, the company said.

With AirPlay 2 support, Samsung customers will be able to use Apple devices to play videos, photos, music, podcasts and more for viewing on Samsung Smart TVs, including QLED 4K and 8K TVs, the Frame and Serif lifestyle TVs, and other Samsung UHD and HD models.

"The app is an interesting development, because it means Apple is opening access to its content ecosystem," said Paul Gagnon, director of technology analysis and research at IHS Markit, a research and advisory firm headquartered in London.

That will be important if Apple wants to compete with the big shots in the streaming market.

"With all the investment Apple is doing in content creation and trying to be more like Netflix or Amazon, they need extra eyeballs," Gagnon told TechNewsWorld.

"They need to drive up subscriptions and purchases, and the only way to do that is to expand your user base," he continued. "There are only so many people purchasing Apple TV set top boxes. If you open that up to smart TV manufacturers, you can pretty quickly double or triple that user base."

Apple's services business brings in about US$10 billion a quarter. Up to now, those revenues have been coming mostly from Apple hardware.

"With Samsung, LG and Vizio now supporting Apple's current streaming service, it allows Apple to expand their customer base and in turn, could bring millions of new customers into Apple's world of services," noted Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in Campbell, California.

"These new partners make it possible for Apple to be even more aggressive in creating original content and expanding their range of video and music offerings in the future," he told TechNewsWorld.

The timing of the Samsung and Apple announcement is also interesting, coming less than a week after Apple aired some bad news about its expected first quarter revenues, suggested Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm.

Apple lowered its expectations for first quarter revenues to $84 billion from its previously projected range of $89 billion to $93 billion. Apple attributed the decline to a number of factors, including a weakening Chinese economy and fewer-than-expected iPhone upgrades worldwide.

"The warning signals a lapse in Apple's core hardware business, and now we see its boldest move to date in terms of distribution for its streaming content business," Rubin told TechNewsWorld.

"Samsung is the largest-volume TV company," he continued. "If you're offering a content service and you want to be integrated with a TV set, it makes sense to start with the biggest volume provider," he added. "It shows Apple's intent to have broad distribution of their service far beyond Apple TV."