Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin wants to give away free ad-supported TV — yes, you read that right. This is according to a report by Janko Roettgers in his book low pass A newsletter, says Free TV, will come with a built-in second screen just for ads and speakers.
Sources tell Rutgers that the built-in screen will be the same height as a smartphone and will stretch across the entire width of the screen. Besides displaying ads, Rutgers says the integrated screen will also come with several widgets that display weather, news headlines, and sports scores from the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.
The TV reportedly won’t be a smart TV either, and will instead be bundled into existing streaming dongles, like those from Roku and Amazon. It’s not clear how far this product, which could be called “Telly,” extends, according to a fictitious brand name statement spotted by Roettgers. However, a suspected device website that says “the biggest thing to happen to TV since color” is coming in 2023, while Teevee’s website similarly notes that something “is coming later this year.”
The fact that this project is rumored to be in the works is testament to the trend of ad bundling and live streaming. Just as my colleague David Pearce pointed out last month, the future of streaming is advertising. As more people turn to free, ad-supported TV (FAST) streaming services to offset the costs of paid streaming subscriptions, Pozin, who is the co-founder of one of the most popular FAST services on the market, could be ready to take advantage of that diversification.