Perhaps no consumer-electronics product had a more audacious launch in 2023 than Telly, a TV set that was given out for free to thousands of U.S. consumers.
But Telly came with a few strings attached. Or to be more precise than “strings,” a smaller second screen came attached to Telly’s 55-inch screen that displays ads constantly regardless of whether the program you’re watching on the big screen is in a commercial break or not. And as state-of-the-art as that big screen is, it comes equipped with a sensor that makes sure you’re watching, which may mean Telly is not for the more privacy-sensitive consumer.
Nevertheless, as Telly looks to build on its market momentum heading into 2024, it’s got a lot more tricks up its sleeve as founder and CEO Ilya Pozin looks to scale the company’s consumer base. The product’s dual-screen set-up will enable some nifty interactive features in the coming months, he revealed on the latest episode of the PvNew podcast “Strictly Business,” including the launch of a remote-control-based second-screen browser capability that lets the viewer to click on ad, download an app or opt in to any kind of experience that would otherwise require a computer or phone.
Listen to the podcast here:
“People have been trying to bridge this gap between performance and awareness in the living room but let’s be honest it’s never going to be done on a single screen,” said Pozin, noting that by the viewer would have interacted with a single-screen environment, the program would have already moved on to the next thing.
Telly will also soon begin enabling so-called T-commerce capabilities that would enable consumers to purchase products onscreen, a technological capability that has been enabled at the margins of the TV industry for decades but never quite achieved true mainstream appeal.
“The best way to look at it is that the screen is almost like a mobile tablet is attached to the screen,” he said. “It uses the data and synchronizes what’s happening up top but it’s also independent of that so it doesn’t disrupt what’s happening.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Pozin walks through what Telly achieved in its first year in the marketplace and what he has plans for in 2024.
“Strictly Business” isPvNew’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
