Telly, a startup that’s looking to disrupt the TV hardware and advertising space, touted a handful of new partners Thursday as the company started shipping its free 4K dual-screen connected TVs subsidized by advertising.
Shipments of the 55” HDR TV sets are rolling out to customers that signed up for the free devices and have been invited to participate in the public beta program, now officially launched by Telly. The plan is to ship 500,000 free TVs by the end of 2023, “with millions more in 2024.”
The 500,000 mark was an early target – one that Telly Chief Strategy Officer Dallas Lawrence in May told StreamTV Insider would not be a problem to achieve. When Telly opened systems earlier this year for pre-order signups it saw over 250,000 households register for a free TV set within the first week.
The idea behind Telly is that it ships customers free TV hardware (which Lawrence had said would go for over $1,000 if sold on the market) for the tradeoff of watching ads displayed on the second screen. That dual screen is a unique feature of the TVs, which Telly plans to utilize for functionalities such as to display sports-related data for games in progress, or weather and traffic information.
And although Telly is doling out TV sets, Lawrence in May emphasized that the startup doesn’t see itself as a hardware company but rather a software and advertising business (it's worth noting that OEMs such as Vizio have also built growing advertising businesses on the backs of their smart TV platform).
As Telly TVs start to hit consumers the company has also pulled in a roster of partners across product, data and advertising. Those include Nielsen, Magnite, Microsoft, Spotify, Harman Kardon, and LiveOne.
Notably, the partnership with Nielsen is a data licensing agreement whereby the measurement company plans to license Telly data to collect and interpret both viewership and ad effectiveness for advertisers and TV programmers.
“Telly’s unique business model and technology will completely transform TV measurement,” said Bob Ivins, head of Data Strategy at Telly, in a statement. “No other industry player can match the potential of Telly’s insights business, which will provide advertisers and content owners with never-before-available tools to target and measure viewership and the effectiveness of advertising.”
Joining MNTN as an initial Telly launch partner are ad tech firm Magnite and Microsoft Advertising, which according to the press release will “work with Telly to unlock innovative opportunities for brands to reach and engage consumers via the company’s dual-screen television.”
“Telly represents the latest innovation in TV advertising,” said Michael Barrett, president and CEO of Magnite, in the announcement. “Together, we are unlocking new inventory and data, in addition to powerful new performance-driven advertising creative for brands looking to reach engaged consumers on the biggest screen in the home.
And the company touted a six-driver integrated soundbar from Harmon Kardon, which complements other features such as voice assistants, motion tracking for fitness with a built-in webcam, and video games. Also coming pre-integrated on the TV sets are Spotify and LiveOne apps, Telly announced Thursday.
Telly TVs don’t have an app store and don’t offer native access to top streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ but does ship with an Android TV dongle, which is supported via one of three HDMI ports on the TVs.
In disclosing the new partnerships and kick off of shipments, Telly CEO and Founder Ilya Pozin – one of the co-founders of Pluto TV (now owned by Paramount Global) – boasted strong interest from both viewers and advertisers.
“The consumer and advertising community's response has been incredible,” Pozin said in a statement.
As for consumers who Telly has reeled in, the company said registrations closely match the U.S. census on ethnic and geographic distribution, while over-indexing the national average on household income and education. There also appears to be a somewhat younger skew, with two-thirds of registrants falling in Gen Z and Millennial households.
“Our disruptive ad-supported business model makes the television completely free to consumers, but the most exciting thing about Telly is the technology that enables our dual-screen television to get better with every update,” continued Pozin. “We can’t wait for consumers to see what a truly smart TV can do as we continue to surprise and delight Telly households for years to come.”