To receive the free TV, Telly users must submit detailed demographic info (such as age, gender and address), as well as purchasing behaviors, brand preferences and viewing habits, and they must agree to let their data be used for serving targeted ads. Telly’s TVs include a sensor that detects how many people are in front of the screen at any given moment.
So what’s the catch? Telly users must agree to several conditions under the company’s terms of service. If someone doesn’t abide by the TOS, Telly reserves the right to demand the TV be shipped back — otherwise, it will charge up to $1,000 to the credit card associated with a given account.
Among the Telly TV requirements: You must “use the product as the primary television in your household”; you must keep the TV connected to the internet at all times; and you are not allowed to use any ad-blocking software. In addition, users may not make “physical modifications to the product or attach peripheral devices to the product not expressly approved by Telly,” the company says in its terms of service. “Any attempt to open the product’s enclosure will be deemed an unauthorized modification.”
Why don’t we just invite big brother right into our living rooms, eh?
Also, I guess you need approval to connect an Xbox, Playstation, or set-top box? What about my htpc?
If I’m blocking ads with e.g. a Pi Hole, does that violate this? In that case I’m not running ad blocking software on the unit itself. Can they realistically dictate what people do outside of the product?
Edit: and for that matter, if my internet goes out but I still use my TV, am I then liable for my ISP’s outage?
Yes, using pihole would violate their ToS: https://www.freetelly.com/terms-of-service
(a) Use the Product as the primary television in Your household;
(b) Keep the Product connected to WiFi and internet; and
(c ) Not use any software on Your WiFi network that with advertising blocking capability.
(d) Not make physical modifications to the Product or attach peripheral devices to the Product not expressly approved by Telly. Any attempt to open the Product’s enclosure will be deemed an unauthorized modification.
If we discover that You are not abiding by the requirements above or have disconnected the Product from an internet connection or WiFi for more than short periods each month, You will no longer be able to use the Service and You must return any Products in your possession to Telly. Failure to return Products to Telly will result in Telly charging the credit card on file. If you do abide by the Terms of Service, your credit card will not be charged.
Hold on, let me just hang a curtain in front of the secondary screen.
There, so much better :)
The part about keeping it connected to internet also struck me - what happens if my internet goes down for hours? Or my power, which will take my internet with it?
$249 for an Insignia 55” 4k tv at best buy right now. Come on people, sell some plasma, don’t buy contribute to this kind of thing.
Meh, your TV cost money while this TV is free, have an extra screen (for ads) and have built-in camera and microphone too! All I need to do is to connect it 24/7 to internet. Such a great deal! No one would give free TV to me, except probably my brother, so you could probably say the company is like a big brother to me.
“The telescreen in 1984 was a device that could be dimmed, but it could not be shut off Completely.” We keep getting closer and closer.
This is the bad place
free-pc beat them to the punch by two decades.
This business model has been tried before. It doesn’t really work.
This time it may actually work though. All they need to do is just showing you constant ads in the extra attached screen based on contents currently shown on the tv as well as your profile data (that you voluntarily submit during registration). They already got your credit card so if you violate their term and causing them to lose advertising money, they’ll just charge the tv cost to your CC (or send it to collection if the charge bounce).
Also, internet advertising was not as advanced as today. These days those ads companies can figure out how to make money just by collecting your online and media consumption habits. Something as intrusive as a tv with capability to inspect what displayed on screen will certainly worth a lot of money to the advertisers. And this tv actually have a camera and microphone too! An ideal customer data mining device.
Maybe. But people don’t like ads any more now then they did back then.
And I have a tough time believing they can squeeze the cost of a TV out of an individual through ads, but I guess we’ll see.
The TV cost would probably be paid off in a year with just $1 worth of ads per day. If they earn, say, $5/1000 impressions of ads (which is a bit on the low side for US citizens’ eyeballs), they’ll just need to show you 200 ads per day to earn $1 just from ad impressions. Assuming the TV is on about 8 hours per day, that’s just 1 ads every 2.5 minutes.
They’ll probably show more ads than this, and have deals with smart tv app makers to install their apps in the smart tv, and collect and sell customer profile data in the ad market as well, so I think it’s not hard to imagine they can profit from the TV, as long as they run the service competently.
