DemoTV

DemoTV is a 24/7, audience-ranked television channel for product demos, built for people who want to discover independent products by watching them in action. The station streams short demos continuously, and the audience decides which products occupy Channels 1, 2 and 3 by backing the demo they would actually try. Anyone with a product can submit a short demo for free, and founders can embed a demo on their own website, recruit testers and collect product feedback. As the site states, "Audience Elo decides the rank — airtime never buys rank," so the top of the board reflects viewer preference rather than advertising spend. Product discovery is crowded, and the usual signals — paid placements, sponsored slots and banner inventory — are hard for a viewer to separate from genuine popularity. DemoTV addresses that by splitting the two ideas apart completely. Ranking is produced only by viewers backing the demo they would try in head-to-head battles, while any commercial placement is clearly labelled and confined to exposure. In the site's own words, "money buys exposure, completed views and clicks, never the ranking." For viewers this means a leaderboard they can read at face value; for makers it means the path to Channels 1-3 runs through the quality of the demo itself rather than the size of a budget. Channel Battle is the central mechanic. Two products for the same job are shown side by side — for example an app builder versus another app builder — and viewers are asked simply to "Watch both. Back the one you'd try — no sign-up." The pick is cast without creating an account, and that pick feeds the audience rank. Because the battles are head to head and paired by category, the comparison is like for like. Wins and battles are counted per demo and shown alongside an audience score, so a listing might display an audience score with a running tally of wins and battles. The station explains that Channels 1-3 are the current top three, that Rank 1 is the demo viewers picked most, and that airtime never buys either. Filling the channel is deliberately simple for makers. Submitting a demo is free and needs no card: a YouTube link or an MP4 upload is enough, with an optional MP4 capped at 40MB, and every submission is reviewed before it goes live. The submission flow has four steps — website details, video, visitor action, then review — and after station approval the maker gets a private dashboard holding one embed code for their website. That widget is included with an approved listing and carries the video, an optional try link and a button the maker chooses, such as Visit website, Start free, Join waitlist, Book a demo or Claim offer. From the dashboard makers can also request testers, cap reveals and copy the embed, while details like video start automatically only when a viewer presses play. Discovery on the station runs through a demo directory that lists all broadcasts, paged ten at a time and sortable by audience rank or newest. Demos are filed under categories that also determine which battles they join, spanning groups such as AI agents, AI app builders, video generation, chat assistants, computer use, developer tools, design and no-code, data and analytics, marketing and sales, productivity, infra and APIs, games, crypto and web3, crypto wallets, crypto infra, robotics and hardware, fintech and payments, security and privacy, education, consumer and social, climate and energy, and other. Category leaderboards highlight positions such as first place in a given category, and the site displays aggregate station numbers — live demos, audience backings, views and visitors — only once live demos exist. Paid reach on DemoTV is explicitly separated from ranking. Makers who want more visibility can buy labelled airtime after claiming their listing; airtime units add promoted placements across the reel and the directory and never change a demo's audience score or channel. Advertisers can also become featured partners through labelled homepage cards, described as $39 for 30 days with labelled placement that never buys Channel rank, or take a Launch Week labelled 7-day sponsorship. There is also Demo Studio, priced at $79, where a maker pastes their site and receives automated production with station QA before air and maker approval, while rank stays audience-only. Optional viewer thank-yous let a maker offer a backer code, a time-boxed free week or a discount, shown with a one-line pitch; the site notes that this never moves Elo and that battle buttons will not show it. Makers are also told they pay only if they want extra reach, and that none of these options buy Channel rank. The wider methodology is consistent throughout: everything is audience-only until a maker chooses to pay, and payment is confined to exposure, completed views and clicks. Airtime is bought in units, with larger unit counts adding more promoted placements and the price shown at checkout. Advertising on the reel is clearly labelled, and the site repeats that paid airtime never touches the rank. Claiming a listing is free and does not by itself approve a claim, and signing in alone is not enough. Community safety is handled through a report flow listing reasons such as scam or misleading, spam, malware or unsafe link, adult or offensive content, impersonating another product, broken video or link, and something else, with reports going to the DemoTV team for review. Contact for takedowns and press is handled by email, and viewers are offered an optional first-party analytics choice that connects a visit with signup and purchase results, with no ad trackers or search terms and a statement that the choice does not affect the site. For viewers, the benefit is a ranked channel of product demos that can be watched and compared without signing up, where the ordering reflects what other people said they would try. For makers, the benefit is a free route to being seen, a free embeddable widget that puts the demo on their own site, and a dashboard for recruiting testers and collecting feedback. Because the ranking is audience-driven, smaller products can climb the board on the strength of the demo rather than the size of a media budget, and because paid placements are labelled, viewers can trust what the rank means. The station frames this as demo quality driving the possibility: what the board has counted grows only as live demos accumulate. Concrete workflows on DemoTV follow a few clear patterns. A viewer browses the directory or the TV view, presses play on a channel, then enters a Channel Battle, watches both demos and backs the one they would try, with no sign-up required. A founder pastes their project URL, submits a title and tagline, chooses the category whose battles the demo will join, adds a YouTube link or MP4, and waits for review. A maker without a video yet can commission one through Demo Studio. Once approved, the maker claims the company, takes the embed code and places the widget on their website with a chosen button and destination. From the dashboard the maker can request testers and cap reveals, and separately buy airtime units, a Featured partner card or a Launch Week sponsorship if they want extra reach. DemoTV runs on the web at demotv.lol and reaches makers and viewers through an embeddable widget, a submission form and a private dashboard. Its audience includes founders and small teams submitting demos, companies that already have a listing and want to claim it, advertisers buying labelled placements, and viewers looking for new products to try. Pricing is straightforward: submission and review are free with no card needed, claiming a listing is free, and paid options are optional — labelled airtime, Featured partners at $39 for 30 days, Demo Studio at $79, and Launch Week labelled seven-day sponsorship — none of which buy Channel rank. Maker contact, takedowns and press are handled through the station's contact address. The takeaway is that DemoTV turns product demos into a ranked channel where the audience, not the advertiser, decides what sits on Channels 1-3. Free submission, a free embeddable widget, tester recruitment and feedback tools give makers the means to be discovered, while clearly labelled airtime gives them a way to buy exposure without ever buying the rank.