a free 4K TV… provided you accept advertising

Imagine a particularly interesting offer: a state-of-the-art 4K TV of 55 inches completely free. No invoice, zero euros to pay: this is the offer currently offered by Telly, the company recently launched by Ilya Pozin, co-founder of Pluto TV who wants to break the trends with a concept at the antipodes of the market.

The idea is simple and well known to Internet users: the television set is free, but in return, you have to agree to consume advertisingin conditions that are not always advantageous, however.

If it’s free: you’re the product!

It’s a concept already launched for music streaming platforms like Spotify, mobile video games and applications, or even video streaming: in exchange for free content, the platform makes its figure on the broadcast of advertising spots. And the more interesting and numerous the content, the more the user is ready to subscribe, even if it means having to endure a growing number of advertisements.

At Telly, the television is free, and it actually consists of two screens: an upper screen 55 inch 4K associated with a second screen below separated by an integrated sound bar. Why a second screen? And quite simply because the latter presents itself as a real advertising banner which broadcasts spots and advertisements permanently. It can also display widgets: stock market prices, weather, calendar… The objective is to make it useful and attractive despite everything in the hope that the user does not hide it. Advertising should only be shown on the right side of the secondary screen, in a relatively limited space.

The main screen could also broadcast targeted advertising when it is not used for broadcasting a TV channel or any content, such as a ad-centric sleep mode.

Advertising but also the collection of personal data

For everything to work, the screen duo and the sound bar are powered by TellyOS, a proprietary system of the brand, which is why Telly intends to deliver its screens with a 4K Android dongle.

And since advertising is clearly not enough to make the offer profitable, the offer also involves the collection of data on the content listened to or watched on the device by Telly, the duration of the viewing sessions and the habits of interaction with the content (search, services used), all of which is used for targeted advertising, but also resold to third-party partners.

Users who no longer wish to view advertising or share their data will have two choices: return all equipment or pay $500. Telly planned the production of 500,000 such televisionsthe first shipments are planned for this summer.