What is Telly and is there a catch with its free 55

American startup Telly is giving away hundreds of thousands of $1,000 TVs for free. But how? And why?

There's been a lot of commotion this week surrounding American startup Telly opening up reservations for its first-ever product: A dual-screen TV featuring a 55-inch 4K panel, a powerful soundbar, and a nifty-looking second display. The company says more than 250,000 people have signed up for one over its first two weeks of reservations. Most shockingly, it's free. But would you really want to claim one for yourself? And, if you do, how? We explore.

Telly went public with its free TV giveaway campaign on 15 May 2023 after two years of behind-the-scenes work.

Its CEO and one of its co-founders is Ilya Pozin, who is also a co-founder of streaming app Pluto TV. The company says it has buy-in from industry giants including Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Vizio, Samsung, Roku, Comcast, Sony, DirecTV, and audience ratings firm Nielsen.

Telly's angle is that viewers have had to pay for content in one way or another - watching ads, paying a subscription fee, or, typically, both - in addition to the hardware they're using to watch that programming. The company wants to address the hardware part of the equation by making its TV free, but making a transparently intense effort to collect data from the viewer to improve returns on ads. In some cases, viewers can even get money from dishing out their personal preferences.

The company's calling this thing "the ultimate TV upgrade," valuing it at $1,000 - it's admittedly downmarket from TVs that focus on optimal picture quality and improved integrated sound reproduction and cost several times more, but with the market also stretching down to the low three digits, it may just do the trick for a lot of households.

Detailed specifications are hard to come by, but we do know it features a 55-inch 4K main display (roughly 48 × 27 inches) with HDR support. An Android TV streaming stick will be provided in the box to plug into any of the three HDMI ports and two USB ports on-board. It also has a digital tuner built-in to receive free over-the-air broadcast channels as well as radios for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

A sensor hub atop this screen contains an "HD Camera" for video calls - it comes with a privacy shutter - a motion sensor to allow for automatic wake-up, videogame controls, and compatibility with smart fitness programs as applicable. There is also a mic array for voice controls.

Separated by a five-driver soundbar, the second display, dubbed the "Smart Screen," is meant to house the television's software UI elements such as the channel picker and settings. Most of the time, though, it will be showing various pieces of news, weather, finance, and other information. The right quarter of the screen will feature a persistent advertisement.

Telly has been going all out on publicity rounds in the early stages of its public life. CEO Ilya Pozin tells TechCrunch that a multi-screen experience should be second nature to millennials and Gen Z, citing Nielsen research saying that 80% of that audience use their phones while watching TV. Importantly, 66% of survey respondents do not pay for cable TV, making service providers an important stakeholder in Telly. For example, DirecTV Stream subscribers are being offered priority waitlist placement for a Telly TV (via FierceVideo).

Importantly, you should know that ads will appear on the second display all the time and can be interacted with to make purchases. The company says you won't be able to disable the display (it's the reason why the whole setup is free) though you can dim its brightness.

If you've had the pleasure of shopping for a new TV in the past few years, you'll know that cameras, motion sensors, and decent computing power for a smart OS (which has built-in games, just so you know) have become table stakes mid-market. Telly makes it clear that it is using this hardware to generate data points for ad buyers - you can check out he company's terms of service, privacy policy, and data use policies.

You can expect Telly to keep the product alive for a long time with a vigorous software update regime. The company has a goal to have the TV connect with other smart home appliances for more data collection opportunities. Chief Strategy Officer David Lawrence tells The Verge that Telly owners will be offered "ongoing rewards every month" for taking on those opportunities.

That said, for that value and compensation, the company does have expectations of their user base. First and foremost among them, Telly's TV must be the primary one in use at the household. While it isn't clear if there are use time requirements tied to this, you can be certain that the company will be able to track most things going on with your TV. If Telly determines that you have violated its terms of service, it will ask you to return the TV or risk being charged through the credit card you will have listed with the company upon signup.

For better or worse, the smart screen and its ads are integral to the Telly TV and it seems like any attempts to hack them away will be frowned upon.

If you live in the US and are aged 18 or over, you can download the Telly app from the Google Play Store for your Android device or the App Store for your iPhone. You can also sign up at freetelly.com. You'll then go through the company's onboarding workflow which includes providing the following data:

If your TV service provider offers a referral code, make sure you put that in.

You'll be asked a series of questions about how you'll be using Telly's TV, your viewing habits, favorite genres and sources, demographic details about your household and yourself - including who lives in your household, whether you rent or own, your income, and whether you're registered to vote - as well as interests, hobbies, and in other topics. The list is long and the details can get granular, so be prepared to work for that free TV you really want. You can, at any point, go to your account settings and delete your account.

Telly is already circulating units to a group of beta testers. Some early signees can expect to receive their TVs as early as this month, though. The company expects the vast majority of the 500,000 units it is prepared to ship will get to their customers' homes throughout the summer. Looking to next year, it projects it will deliver millions of sets.

Jules joined the Pocket-lint team in 2023 as part of our news team. He also contributes to our sister sites Android Police and XDA-Developers. He's a big fan of the big picture in technology and the impacts on people navigating through its changes.