Interested in a free TV? Telly has announced that its new 55-inch 4K HDR Smart TV, which is being given away at zero cost as part of an ambitious, ad-supported experiment, is now available to reserve at freetelly.com ahead of its initial release to 500,000 qualifying U.S. consumers this summer. The TV features a second, 9-inch-high “Smart Screen” that appears to have been primarily designed to display ads at all times, although other content, including news, weather, and even video games are also supported, according to a list of features that can be found on Telly’s website. Additionally, users will find a powerful built-in sound bar in the free TV that is said to be valued at $1,000.
“Telly is giving away the device completely free,” confirmed Ilya Pozin, the company’s founder and CEO. “The business will be entirely supported by advertising and affiliate revenue.”
From a Telly post:
Now, all smart TVs come with ads. But you still pay for the TV. All of that changes today. During the signup process we ask questions about you and your household to optimize your ad experience. Brands in turn, pay for the non-intrusive ad on the Smart Screen. That’s how you get Telly free. Plain and simple. It’s time you got cut in on the deal.
From a Variety report:
When you sign up through the company’s app, Telly will ask for specific demographic, TV-viewing and lifestyle info, which the company will use to target addressable ads to individual households. The TVs also have a built-in sensor that can detect the number of people who are watching at any particular time. Pozin emphasized that all of Telly’s features comply with privacy regulations.
Telly’s bet is that it will be able to generate a return on the major upfront investment of getting its ad-enabled TVs in front of U.S. consumers. It’s not clear how long it might take Telly to recoup the sunk costs of the free TVs. Pozin argues that the unusual business plan is “a revolutionary step forward for both consumers and advertisers.”
Discussion (13 replies)
Join Discussion →Seems like either some black duct tape or a 12ga shotgun would fix anything that's wrong with this free TV set.
They used to do this with cars here in Eastern Europe about 15 years ago. Of course the company folded in a year or so and the owners of the "free" cars were forced to pay the loans remaining on the cars to the bank.
Of course the people who went for this deal were the ones who couldn't afford to pay for a car, so the used car market was flooded with cheap econoboxes driving down the price, so most of them ended up with no car, but still outstanding debt.
Jeez!
I went ahead and went through the sign up process. There is ZERO mention of any type of financing involved or financial data gathered thus far. All marketing data. So time will tell.
they want this to be the primary TV in your home. (not gonna happen.) this will go in our second living area for guests or for the wife to watch while doing her crafting stuff or maybe replace the bedroom TV due to the integrated sound bar. (Bedroom TV gets watched the most.)
Interesting concept. We'll see how it goes.
We've got enough TVs in the house, and I'm very particular about specs and app ecosystem, so I'm not interested but if we did need one I'd look into it.
I want to add that this is VERY clearly a meta data gathering exercise to see what kind of install base could be gathered. Basically the spend right now from Telly is to gather the data into a cloud based server ecosystem. Once they know they are hitting the tipping point on a cost/income balance to do the TV's they will begin that process.
And there is a very clear reason this is being done in the US. In the EU or UK they would shut this down so fast due to invasion of privacy. Don't forget the remote is a mircrophone and they have already made it clear there is a built in camera in the TV as well.
Just some items to consider.
Considering how many have that now I'm starting to wonder if I need to crack some covers open and start clipping wires. Good lord, between our phones, other mobile devices, and these, it's really getting hard to remember how many things are listening in now.
I'm tempted to pick one up just to have one out in the Garage or something stupid like that. Maybe give it to the kid for his Xbox
The dystopian vibes are strong.
"At Telly, we take your privacy seriously." Of course you do.
—https://www.freetelly.com/privacy-policy
Note the following from the Terms of Service:
And also this from their Viewing and Activity Data Policy (Where they remind us once again that "t Telly, we take your privacy seriously."):
"You have the right to opt-out of sharing your Viewing and Activity Data, but unfortunately, that means you will no longer have access to the Services [and must return the television]. If you opt out and do not return the television to Telly, Telly will charge the credit card on file."
I was mildly curious what information they request of those who apply for a reservation, but the process requires one to download and install their "free" mobile app. As one might've guessed, that was not going to happen.
Telly accidentally published an internal draft of their privacy policy, which was later removed, but apparently not before it was noticed by a journalist on Twitter. The following is from an article on Techcrunch:
—https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/16/telly-free-smart-tv-privacy-policy/
See above.
It's equipped with a built-in camera, sensors, and microphone. I'm perplexed as to how you could possibly consider putting this piece of trash inside your home, and the bedroom of all places. You seem to acknowledge how intrusive the device is, yet weren't deterred from signing up for one. Is privacy really worth less than a cheaply made TV?
The TV itself is probably not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the growing level of data collection and the acceptance of such is dangerous to society. Human experiences are essentially being transformed into commodities, and I don't understand why more people aren't bothered by that.
My wife dgaf lol we have a google nest hub and a Alexa already.
I totally get the security and privacy concerns. I run a Pihole on my whole home internet to cut down on how much data leaks out around the edges and how many ads pop up all over the place.
On the other hand - I'm along with Grim here. I have a Echo somewhere in the house, and I don't care what it really picks up. I probably should -- I mean, there's been more than one occasion when sitting around the dinner table we talk about a hot tub or looking at a new car, and then lo and behold, all that stuff starts popping up as "Recommended" on Amazon... it's no coincidence I'm sure, and it is disconcerting.
But if Amazon wants to pay some idiots to listen to me and my wife doin the nasty -- or even better, it makes me laugh to think they may be training AI with those sound files -- then more power to them and I honestly don't care, and maybe they will learn a trick or two.
My data and privacy I guard, but I don't go out of my way and inconvenience myself in that effort, you have to give up some of it if you want to live in modern society and not be a total hermit or recluse.
I choose privacy and am a bit of a hermit because modern society pretty much sucks.
Something like that happened to me a few weeks back. The strange thing is that it involved some show we just watched via cable (Comcast). I don't remember what show it was but not kidding, the very next there were pop-up ads while I browsing on the net for it and I hadn't been getting them before.