Instagram is preparing a TV app for Reels, a shift that could move social video from the scroll to the sofa. For brands and creators, this opens new distribution avenues but raises the bar for planning and measurement. With Stellar Tech’s Discovery, Projects, and Reports (including integrated Sentiment Analysis), teams can adapt with data, not guesswork.
From Smartphone to Smart TV: Instagram’s Next Platform Leap
Three billion people use Instagram every month, a figure Adam Mosseri cited at the Screentime Conference in Los Angeles, as reported by Bloomberg. In that same talk, Mosseri said: “I wish we had explored it years ago.” He was referring to a dedicated TV app for Reels, one that would bring short-form social video into the living room.
At first glance, it seems like a small design update. But strategically, it’s a major shift. Television is the last big screen Instagram hasn’t yet conquered, a space where YouTube still reigns. In the U.S., viewers now consume over one billion hours of YouTube daily on Smart TVs
For Instagram, this move isn’t just about convenience. It’s about redefining reach architecture: how social video scales when it moves from personal, vertical feeds to shared, horizontal viewing.
TikTok as a Precedent and a Warning
TikTok’s first attempt at a TV app, launched on Amazon Fire TV in 2021, fell flat and was quietly discontinued in 2025. A new version, aimed at “couch-bound audiences,” is now in development.
Instagram is learning from that experiment.
While TikTok’s TV strategy focused on raw content volume, Instagram’s centers on creative quality and brand integration, a balance between user spontaneity and professional storytelling.
If this new app launches, it won’t try to compete with Netflix. It will act as a social entertainment layer, where communities gather, creators broadcast, and brands interact in real time.
Why the Living Room Changes the Rules for Brands
The living room is not another touchpoint, it’s a different mindset. On mobile, users scroll impulsively; on TV, they watch intentionally. Attention is shared, not personal, and that makes it more valuable but also more fragile.
A successful TV-ready Reel has to feel authentic, but also visually deliberate, storytelling that holds up when seen from three meters away. It’s a higher creative bar, and one that rewards brands who understand how data, audience behavior, and content design work together.
That’s exactly where Stellar Tech comes in: connecting creativity with actionable intelligence.
How Stellar Tech Enables Data-Driven Reach on the Big Screen
The migration from phone to TV changes what it means to “plan” a campaign. With the Discovery, marketers can identify creators whose storytelling style, audience composition, and engagement quality translate effectively to larger screens. Discovery’s AI-driven filters reveal who already produces high-quality Reels, sustains longer watch times, and drives authentic engagement, insights that become critical when attention stretches beyond a few seconds.
Once the right creators are identified, operational control becomes the next challenge. Stellar Tech Projects centralizes campaign logistics, briefings, content calendars, creative approvals, and asset delivery, ensuring every stakeholder works in sync.
For brands testing Reels across mobile and potential TV formats, Projects enables version management, side-by-side comparison of performance data, and instant feedback loops, keeping agility without sacrificing structure.
Performance tracking closes the loop. Reports consolidates all campaign content, posts, Reels, stories, videos, and enriches them with engagement metrics, conversions, and ROI indicators. Within Reports, Sentiment Analysis automatically scans audience comments to identify tone shifts and emerging trends, giving teams early visibility into how viewers actually feel about the content.
If sentiment turns negative or conversation trends drift, campaign teams can react before it affects brand equity. It’s proactive control powered by automation, not reaction after the damage is done.
The Creator Economy Meets the Big Screen
Bringing Reels to TV could redefine how creators and brands collaborate. Social video and entertainment are merging into one ecosystem, a hybrid of authenticity and production value. Creators become cross-format storytellers; brands become co-producers of cultural moments.
For marketers, this means campaigns are no longer linear launches, they’re evolving storylines.
Each Reel, each collaboration, becomes part of a larger narrative arc designed to move across devices.
Stellar Tech acts as the infrastructure for this evolution. Discovery finds the right creators.
Projects keeps campaigns adaptive. Reports, with its integrated Sentiment Analysis, transforms feedback into foresight, showing not just what performs, but why.
That feedback loop is the foundation of sustainable reach, not just viral reach.
Balancing Evidence and Expression
The challenge for every brand in this new landscape is balance. Too much focus on data risks sterilizing the creative spark; too little invites chaos. The winning formula lies in creative intuition guided by intelligence.
That’s the philosophy behind Stellar Tech’s unified suite: not dashboards to look at after launch, but instruments to navigate while campaigns evolve. As interfaces change, algorithms shift, and audience behavior diversifies, brands need more than reports, they need live intelligence that helps them act in rhythm with the platform itself.
The Television Becomes the Next Social Platform
Instagram’s rumored TV app signals more than a feature update, it marks the next phase of how we experience social media. If Reels enter the living room, reach will be measured not by impressions, but by moments of shared attention.
Brands that prepare now, developing creators, refining storytelling, and building systems that merge agility with analysis, will define this shift rather than react to it.
Stellar Tech provides the backbone for that transformation:
→ Discovery for precision creator selection
→ Projects for seamless collaboration and control
→ Reports for full transparency and integrated Sentiment Analysis
Together, these modules create an end-to-end infrastructure for modern influencer marketing, one that unites creative freedom with measurable performance. Because on the connected screen, visibility is no longer accidental. It’s engineered.
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This article is brought to you by Stellar
Stellar is a SaaS platform for influencer marketing, developed by the French-Belgian company Stellar Tech and used in more than 35 countries. By using artificial intelligence, including social listening and sentiment analysis, Stellar enables companies to carry out influencer marketing campaigns in a simple and informed manner. The platform helps identify relevant ambassadors, analyse their profiles and target audiences, manage campaigns, and predict and measure the performance and ROI of these campaigns on social networks.
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