Do you own a Samsung TV? You may have been hit by a BBC iPlayer blackout, as the broadcaster's on-demand streaming service is going dark on a number of Samsung TVs.
Numerous Samsung TV owners are finding themselves unable to access the UK service after security certificates on older Samsung devices expired.
If you can still launch iPlayer you won't have anything to worry about, but there are a few things to check if you can't. SamsungHelpUK has clarified that sets manufactured between 2012 and 2015 require you to download an update to fix the issue, as shown below:
Hi Mike. The Security Certificates for BBC iPlayer has ran out today. We are currently pushing updates to TV's manufactured between 2012 and 2015. We advise to keep checking for updates and thank you for your patience in the meantime. ^JSDecember 9, 2019
How do I fix it?
Samsung told us that "customers who have enabled automatic updates on their Samsung Smart TVs, the software will be automatically updated on December 9th. However, customers who do not have automatic updates enabled will need to manually update their TVs manually from within the TV settings menu."
However, there are a number of sets that can't be fixed with a quick update, and which will have to wait until "early 2020" according to Samsung's support page.
The models whose unlucky owners won't be able to access iPlayer over Christmas include the SEK-1000/XC, SEK-2000/XC, SEK-3000/XC, UE82S9WATXXU, UE32S9AUXXU, UE40LS001AUXXU, UE32LS001AUXXU, UE24LS001AUXXU, LT24D390SW/EN, LT27D390SW/EN, and LT27B551EW/XU.
Either way, more recent televisions (from 2016 onwards) shouldn't have any issues, and you shouldn't need to worry about any of these 2019 Samsung TVs if you're looking to buy a new set in time for Christmas.
You can also work around the problem by using an external streaming stick, like the Roku Express or Amazon Fire TV Stick, which can load the apps separately to Samsung's smart TV platform. They cost in the range of £20-40 and may be a handy solution if you can't wait until January to start bingeing Killing Eve again.
Did no one see this coming?
The odd thing is that the problem seems to have caught Samsung by surprise, with the company now frantically pushing out updates to affected devices. The BBC says Samsung was meant to have pushed out a firmware update to address the issue already; when we reached out to Samsung ourselves, we were given no explanation for the delay.
If you've had trouble accessing iPlayer through your Samsung set-top box or Blu-ray player, however, then you may be using a model that's no longer able to support the streaming service's requirements – you can check if the model number is on this list of devices that lost iPlayer functionality on December 6.
For any further information or support, please visit www.samsung.com/uk/support/.
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