The New Ordering Channel
Slim Chickens, the 300-plus-unit fast-casual chicken franchise, is now live on the Samsung Smart TV home screen in Northwest Arkansas, letting guests order tenders, wings, sandwiches, and sauces directly from their couch using a TV remote. The pilot — built through a three-way partnership with shoppable streaming marketplace klyq and direct-to-merchant ordering network Gett — represents one of the first deployments of full-menu restaurant ordering embedded natively into a connected-TV interface.
The mechanics are straightforward for the guest: a Slim Chickens advertisement appears on the Samsung Smart TV home screen, a short brand video plays, and items are added to a cart through klyq's patented BuyBar™. Checkout happens entirely via the remote — no QR code, no app download, no switching devices. For operators, the backend is equally clean: orders flow through Gett's First Party Everywhere (FPE) network directly into Slim Chickens' existing first-party online ordering platform, the same infrastructure that powers the brand's app and website.
Why Margins Matter Here
The operator implications are significant. Because orders bypass third-party delivery marketplaces, Slim Chickens retains the customer relationship and avoids the commission fees that have pressured restaurant margins for years. Guests pay the brand's own menu prices rather than marketplace-inflated rates. Ben Turner, vice president of brand performance at Slim Chickens, described the model as turning televisions into branded ordering counters: "We're not just renting space on the biggest screen in the house. We're turning TVs into Slim Chickens counters. And because every order runs through our own platforms, we maintain control over the guest relationship and the Slim Chickens experience our customers know and love."
For franchisors watching delivery economics and first-party ordering strategies, that margin retention argument carries real weight. The model requires no new kitchen equipment and no operational changes for restaurant staff — a low-friction adoption case that franchise systems typically demand before scaling a technology pilot.
Scale and What Comes Next
klyq's BuyBar™ platform currently reaches more than 80 million U.S. Samsung Smart TVs, with expansion planned across Vizio, Apple TV, and Google TV. Gett's First Party Everywhere network already connects more than 40,000 partner restaurants to consumer channels including AI assistants, smart TVs, video games, and social platforms — a footprint that signals where the company believes the next wave of restaurant discovery and ordering will originate.
Nick Buzzell, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of NBTV (klyq's parent company), framed the proposition in terms of a gap the television advertising industry has never closed: "Restaurants have been advertising on TV for 70 years and asking people to remember them later. klyq closes that gap, enabling instant purchase with home delivery." Paul Stoltz, founder and CEO of Gett, added that the TV channel stands to become a meaningful consumer entry point for restaurant brands competing to reduce dependence on aggregator platforms.
Slim Chickens opened its first location in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2003 and now operates in 34 U.S. states and four international markets, with a stated goal of reaching more than 600 restaurants over the next decade. Launching the TV ordering pilot in its home market of Northwest Arkansas positions the brand to refine the model before a broader rollout. For operators tracking emerging off-premises and delivery channel trends, the Slim Chickens pilot is an early live example of what agentic commerce — ordering initiated by a consumer from within any digital environment — looks like in a fast-casual context.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
