Telly starts shipping its free ad

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

The free TV company Telly has started shipping its ad-supported TVs to its first wave of customers. Telly first opened its waitlist in May and plans on shipping 500,000 free TVs to customers by the end of 2023 — and “millions more” in 2024.

Unlike most TVs, beneath Telly’s 55-inch 4K display is a smaller screen separated from the main display by a soundbar. That thinner display is dedicated to showing advertisements, which is the point of its business model.

To even use the thing, you’ll need to commit to having your viewing data sucked up and used by advertisers. If you’re okay with that, you can also use the secondary display to show widgets that surface sports scores, a news sticker, the weather, and more. The TV features a camera (with a privacy shutter) for fitness programs as well, along with a set of built-in games.

Additionally, Telly announced that it’s working with Nielsen to “collect and interpret first-of-its-kind viewership and ad effectiveness insights” for advertisers and TV programmers. It’s also working with Microsoft, Magnite, and MNTN to power the ads on the TV. Microsoft became Netflix’s advertising partner for its new ad-supported tier last year.

It’s not clear how many customers Telly is shipping its TVs out to during this round, but it says those who receive the device will get to participate in the public beta program. That means they’ll also get access to some of the features Telly is making available at launch, including integrations with Spotify, LiveOne, and Zoom. While Telly’s system doesn’t let you install any streaming apps, it still ships with a Google TV dongle. You can also use it with a Roku device, Amazon Fire Stick, or Apple TV.

“We are thrilled to begin shipping what is by far the smartest television ever built to consumers,” Telly CEO and founder Ilya Pozin said in a statement. “Our disruptive ad supported business model makes the television completely free to consumers, but the most exciting thing about Telly is the technology that enables our dual-screen television to get better with every update.”

Even though you’ll have to sacrifice a part of your privacy to use Telly, a free TV might be too hard to pass up for some. One month after Telly opened up its waitlist, 250,000 people already signed up, and I’m guessing that number has increased since then.

Update July 13th, 9:47AM ET: Updated to clarify that Telly comes with a Google TV dongle.

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