Commentary

Telly The TV Set Company: Watch This TV Ad Space - Because You Have To

Giving away TV sets for free? Consumers can be enamored with that idea -- and that's the point.

To encourage new consumers to embrace the smart TV ecosystem, new connected TV equipment-focused company Tellyis now prepared to give away 500,000 free TVs in the U.S.

How are they doing this? Selling advertising, of course. But not entirely in the way other TV set manufacturers like Samsung, LG, or Vizio are doing with their internal smart TV platforms

It comes by using the smaller second screen -- called a "Dual Screen Smart TV" --  attached to a full 55-inch 4K TV set just below the regular TV screen -- one that constantly shows display ads.

Also enticing to consumers is that Telly's smart TV offers video calling, gaming, music, and voice-assistant functions. The company will also be selling advertising via an array of apps that will be available to users.

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This kind of advertising seems to mimic those free mobile apps on your phone -- where there is always some display advertising running.

Now, a free TV set may not be all that eye-opening. The average price of smart TV-enabled 4K can be as low as $100 to $150 for even a 50-inch modern smart TV set.

Looking at the history of the pay TV business, pay TV consumers have always been given equipment as part of their monthly video plan.

Take DirecTV. How much did it cost to make set-top boxes and satellite dishes -- a business now moving to a more digital connected business? And how are they monetizing that equipment now?

Over the last several years, pay TV providers currently have their own ways of getting paid for this equipment. Monthly rental fees for cable “set-top” boxes are also still a thing for many traditional pay TV consumers. More recently, many have been experimenting with “pause” ads during stoppage of video playback.

In the wake of every higher premium streaming pricing to come, will new bundling of streaming services see a similar subscription monthly cost that includes TV set equipment?

You can see the attraction to moving to an all-in-one subscription service. Customers are accustomed to this from their mobile/broadband carriers, who also offer up monthly plans for their iPhones and the like.

Think about the introduction of all those so-called free TV channels. Are they really free? Not if you need to pay for some broadband service. 

Telly is a TV equipment-focused company now. But who’s to say they also won’t partner up with TV content owners and get into deeper programming/channel development?

In other words, consumers seem to need to constantly be aware of new media business models. Take the often-used industry phrase to heart:“Watch this space.”

If not, you’ll be watching another space, mostly with advertising attached.

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