Samsung and Amazon have teamed up to give viewers a taste of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and generate interest before the premiere of the second season of the TV series on Prime Video.

As announced last week, the complete first season of Amazon’s big-budget series, set thousands of years before the events of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, has been included for a limited time on the device maker’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service Samsung TV Plus (FAST).

The series has been available on Samsung TV Plus since August 15, marking the first time ever that it has been available for free outside of a subscription service. The first season will remain on the Samsung FAST service for about another week, until August 28, one day before the August 29 premiere of “The 4000.” The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 2 on Prime Video.

Samsung TV Plus is available and pre-installed on the electronics giant’s smart TVs, as well as Galaxy mobile devices and other devices, making the limited-time trial available to consumers on 300 million devices outside of the Prime Video app. In the U.S., Samsung TV Plus viewers can watch the first season of the series on a dedicated linear streaming channel for “The Rings of Power,” one of several aggregated channels (such as the “Movie Hub,” “Movie Hub Action” and “All Action” channels), and on demand.

It is an example of how platform providers and content owners with their own DTC streaming services are finding mutually beneficial collaboration opportunities.

Samsung brings fresh and big-name premium content on an exclusive, albeit limited, basis with its FAST service. At this year’s NewFronts, Samsung put a focus on expanding premium content and mentioned a focus on strategic partnerships for programming genres it knows are important to agencies and their clients. While Amazon Fire TV devices compete with Samsung, its Prime Video subscription service is not in direct competition with the OEM’s FAST service.

For Amazon, that means the franchise series will be available for free on millions of devices, potentially attracting new fans while giving existing fans a chance to catch up and build interest for season two. And there’s the opportunity for additional subscribers if season 1 piques the interest of viewers who want to see the next season and don’t already have Prime Video.

Salek Brodsky, SVP & General Manager of Samsung TV Plus, said in a statement that FAST is excited to expand its partnership with Prime Video. Samsung and Prime Video have already collaborated for the launch of the LOTR series in 2022.

“Nearly 300 million Samsung TV and Galaxy device owners will have the opportunity to discover or catch up on this hit series while continuing to have free access to one of the world’s largest offerings of live TV channels and popular titles on demand,” said Brodsky.

Sandhya Iyer of Prime Video also commented on the collaboration between the two parties in the announcement.

“This sampling program represents a milestone for both companies as we bring this iconic franchise to new audiences around the world at no additional cost,” said Iyer, GM of Global 3P Devices Marketing at Amazon Prime Video, in a statement. “We first partnered with Samsung in 2022 for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series launch and together we have raised the bar for future and existing Tolkien fans.”

Other players in the streaming video space already have the ability for content owners to use FAST services from device makers like Samsung TV Plus to offer their viewers a choice of TV shows or movies, and potentially direct them to their own apps. Streamers can use the device and the FAST interface to drive sign-ups, encourage viewers to tune in to new shows or dive deeper into their content libraries.

When asked by StreamTV Insider, Samsung would not disclose or confirm whether the partnership with Amazon also includes on-screen prompts, deep links or other integrations around the LOTR program to direct users to the Prime Video app or perform other actions, but similar efforts have been observed from other players.

Vizio and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, for example, teamed up last June when the SVOD became the first content partner for the smart TV maker’s “Content Connections” discovery feature.

This program is linked to Vizio’s WatchFree+ FAST service and interface and allows users to preview content and switch directly from the FAST environment to the subscription service’s apps.

With Peacock, Vizio promoted SVOD programming by making a limited-time preview available to viewers for free on WatchFree+. The idea is to give viewers access to select episodes of popular Peacock titles for free. As they watch, the platform displays what Vizio calls “intuitive messages” directing users to the content partner’s streaming app. And in Vizio’s case, there was a direct connection, so viewers could jump from a Peacock show on the linear FAST channel straight to the SVOD app to watch more episodes or sign up for an account.

Vizio showcased the Peacock content, available for three weeks, in a special preview channel that was also promoted on the home screen.