Friday, May 14, 2021
How did you come up with the idea for Atmosphere TV?
Atmosphere was built on the idea of what people are watching in bars and restaurants when they're not watching sports. Prior to our launch, people were typically watching SportsCenter reruns, Judge Judy, or depressing news stations with talking heads. We built an audio-free option with more than 50 channels, designed to keep customers sitting, eating, drinking and spending more money—all without costing the business a penny.
What makes your service unique? Our TV platform is specifically built for business use. As businesses cut cable at an astonishing rate, we fill the void with content that improves the customer experience and alleviates wait times. We've built a channel for every mood, so whether you're at a Sports Bar in Vermont or a laundromat in Southern California, we have a solution for your business. With channels like CHIVE TV, Red Bull TV, America's Funniest Home Videos, and BeachBumTV, we reach audiences of all kinds. No negativity, no talking heads, no politics. We simply make people happy.
How has video streaming technology matured and made it possible to launch your solution?
We were able to find a gap in the market at the cross section of content and streaming hardware technology. Ten years ago, the two were not nearly in sync enough to accomplish what we've been able to accomplish today. We use a high-quality hardware platform in Apple TV and our content library is hundreds of thousands of hours long. It has become easier and easier for content creators to produce quality content, allowing us to pull from many different sources.
What revenue opportunities do you offer ISOs and MLSs?
We've built a profitable commission structure with recurring revenue options for ISOs and MLSs to be able to provide a top quality and 100 percent free service to their current customers and prospects. Our service is perfect for businesses of all kinds and can help an ISO or MLS build rapport with a business owner/manager and eventually sell their core offerings.
How are you helping retail, restaurants and hotels in the post-COVID economic recovery phase?
The hospitality industry was hit hard by the pandemic. As customers flock back to the retail and hospitality space, operators want to show their customers the improvements they've made in the venue while increasing their per check average. We're a perfect solution for that, as we have been proven to keep customers sitting 16 percent longer. And they're not ordering water!
How fast are you growing and how are you achieving that growth?
We've had tremendous growth the past year, expanding to over 15,000 businesses worldwide and growing daily. We've been fortunate to be able to offer operators of all sorts of businesses a free service during a pandemic that makes their customers smile [as well as an] option to completely cut their cable bill and save thousands a year if cable is not essential to their operation.
In the past six months, we've hired more than 60 people across our sales and marketing channels who help manage and invigorate our growth. We're shooting to double distribution by the end of 2021. We recently closed a $25 million Series B round of funding that will primarily be used to accelerate our growth. The concept is simple: better TV for business, and we're here to provide that.
What has been your biggest challenge so far, and how did you overcome it?
As with any startup, there are many challenges! One that comes to mind is the hardware we originally distributed in our first few years. Unfortunately, this hardware provider was not built for what we were looking to accomplish long term. While the device served its purpose for proving our concept, it left much to be desired from the user experience and software update perspective as well as overall ease of use. We had over 5,000 of these devices in the wild and we contacted every business who had one and replaced their device with an Apple TV all at no cost to the venue. It was a long, slow, labor intensive process but it was vital to our success.
What's a key trend in 2021, and why do you think it's important?
I'm not certain it's even a trend any longer because streaming TV is here to stay but the competition in the space is only just beginning. It's no secret cable providers are losing customers at an alarming rate to cable cutters and streaming platforms like Atmosphere TV. Four of the top cable providers lost nearly 1.5 million paid TV subscribers in Q1 2021 alone, which leaves the door wide open for a better TV solution that benefits businesses of all kinds by enabling them to better serve customers and save thousands of dollars per year in the process.
For additional information, visit atmosphere.tv/ or call or email Mike Kelly at 908-433-9243 and mike.kelly@atmosphere.tv
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