Telly, the startup that gives away free smart TVs in exchange for data and ad exposure, is making its home screen ads available for brands to buy programmatically – and pushing for industry standards to help attract more spend.
Telly’s smart TVs come with a smaller, skinnier second screen that sits below whatever viewers are watching on the main screen and runs a steady stream of news and ads, including programmatic home screen ads. The programmatic home screen ads live on that second screen. Telly uses Magnite’s SpringServe ad server to deliver the ads, with demand coming from The Trade Desk, Teads and others.
But, for home screen ads to stick, they need scale, which is where programmatic enablement comes in, Mike Shehan, Telly’s CRO, told AdExchanger. Shehan is the former CEO of SpotX, the video supply-side platform Magnite acquired in 2021.
Telly isn’t first out of the gate with programmatic home screen ads.
Ad tech platform Nexxen, for instance, made its native home screen ads programmatically available across a growing list of TV manufacturers last year, including V (formerly VIDAA) and TiVo. And SSPs, including Magnite, have been doing the same with pause ads for a while.
But Telly is marking out territory by working closely with the IAB Tech Lab to create standardized specs for home screen ads in the bidstream, Shehan said. The IAB Tech Lab closed the public comment period for its proposed spec updates at the end of June and finalized the signal updates in July.
Shehan also argued that Telly’s second screens and access to first-party customer data give it an edge when it comes to targeting home screen ads and driving business results.
Go big or go home screen
When customers sign up to receive a Telly device, they first have to fill out a lengthy questionnaire, including household income and the number of people living in the home. Customers also have to answer interest- and behavior-based questions, including about their brand preferences, insurance providers, what types of cars members of the household drive and whether those cars are leased or owned.
The questionnaire goes “very deep on demographics, lifestyle and brand loyalty,” Shehan said, which, when paired with automatic content recognition (ACR) data, enables better targeting. (ACR data reveals what content someone is watching.) For example, Telly can help insurance providers target households that are shopping for a new policy.
The second screen is more than just a data collection device, however. Because it can run content independently of the main screen, Telly can show ads while someone is watching a show without the interruption of a traditional commercial break. Advertisers can also reach consumers who stream their content ad-free.
Beyond programmatic enablement, Telly is also offering longer home screen ads of up to five minutes available through private marketplace deals via Magnite. The longer duration, combined with the nondisruptive nature of a home screen ad placement, is good for engagement, Shehan said.
For example, a streaming service, which Telly declined to name, was able to drive five times as many app opens with a five-minute home screen ad versus a two-minute ad.
Some media buyers are already convinced that longer ads work well in this context.
“The home screen has always been a powerful front door for us to engage viewers,” said Mike Treon, head of CTV and video strategy at PMG. “Telly extends that opportunity, giving brands a persistent presence that enhances engagement.”
What remains to be seen is whether that enthusiasm translates into sustainable, long-term investment.
