According to a report, Ilya Pozin, co-founder of Pluto TV, is planning to give away free ad-supported TVs that come with a second screen exclusively for ads and a soundbar. Instead of making money from TV sales, Pozin’s new company, Teevee Corporation, would earn revenue from the ads shown on the secondary screen. Vizio already makes more money from ads and commissions than it does from selling TVs, so the idea isn’t as crazy as it may seem.
Read: Google unveils the Pixel Fold, with chunky bezels
The secondary screen would be about the same size as a smartphone and display ads and various widgets, such as the weather, news headlines, and sports scores from major leagues. The TV would not be a smart TV and would instead come with streaming dongles like Roku and Amazon. It is unclear how far along the development of the product, which may be called “Telly,” is. A possible website for the device claims that “the biggest thing to happen to TV since colour” is coming in 2023, while a Teevee site states that something is “coming later this year.”
The fact that this project is even being considered highlights the trend of bundling ads and streaming. As more people turn to free ad-supported streaming TV services to offset the costs of paid streaming subscriptions, Pozin, the co-founder of one of the most popular free ad-supported streaming TV services on the market, could be poised to take advantage of this shift.
According to the company their TV will look unlike anything we’ve seen before. The TV set has been described to me as an all-in-one device, combining a decently-sized TV, a soundbar and a second screen in a single chassis.
- That second screen will be about the height of a phone, and stretch across the entire width of the device.
- In addition to playing ads that can be relevant to what’s being shown on the first screen, the second screen will also be able to display a variety of widgets to show the local weather, news headlines and sports scores from leagues including the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.
- Some of the news sources Teevee is looking to integrate into its news ticker include Bloomberg, CNN and ESPN; it’s unclear what the final selection will be.
- At least for its launch model, Teevee isn’t actually building its own smart TV. Instead, the device will rely on bundling an existing streaming dongle to add apps for streaming services to the device.
- The second screen will likely include some form of ACR to identify what is playing on the first screen, which will allow the company to display context-relevant advertising.
- There will likely also be a companion mobile app for setup and additional functionality.
- Many of these details could change before the company announces its product; Teevee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
