A free 55-inch TV sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? All you have to do in exchange is watch some ads. I signed up because I thought I was watch TV with advertising as long as I can remember, so it’s not a new concept.
New in this ‘deal’ is a free 55-inch TV with a screen attached to the bottom where ads are displayed. And the free TVs have started to be delivered.
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But certainly nothing is completely free, so how are you Actually Paying for a fancy 55-inch 4K TV? The answer to that question is the same as most things when we talk about the internet: you are pay with your data.
First we tell you about Telly . dual screen TV in the company’s campaign in May. Telly has announced plans to ship 500,000 TVs for free by the end of 2023, with plans to add millions more by 2024.
In the first week of the campaign, more than 250,000 customers signed up for the free 4K TV — two-thirds of those who signed up were millennials or from Generation Z, both populations that are increasingly difficult to reach for advertisers.
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Telly announced that those TVs began shipping last week, as well as several promotional partnerships with Magnite and Microsoft. TV will support Spotify and LiveOne for audio streaming services.
Telly also announced that Nielsen, a data measurement company, will license Telly’s data to collect and analyze unique viewership information that will provide valuable insights to TV advertisers and programmers.
“We are excited to begin shipping the smartest television ever built to consumers,” said Ilya Pozin, CEO and Founder of Telly.
“Our groundbreaking ad-supported business model makes TVs completely free for consumers, but what’s most exciting about Telly is the technology that enables our dual-screen televisions to get better with each update. We can’t wait for consumers to see what a smart TV really can do as we continue to surprise and delight households for years to come.” Telly says.
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To order Telly, you need to provide the company with your full name and shipping information, including a valid US phone number. You must then download the Telly app to confirm your account, where you must agree to their data collection terms and complete a survey to gather information about your interests, helping the company create an advertising profile about you.
Now, remember that this data collection takes place before you even receive your TV.
Dallas Lawrence, chief strategy officer at Telly, explains the process: “Nearly all smart TVs today collect consumption and viewership data. The only fundamental difference between the data we collect on consumption and viewership and the data that every major TV manufacturer collects today is that we ask consumers to respond first in exchange for a thousand dollars worth of that data and the TV we collect.”
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It may be the process by which viewers sign up, but when do we cross the line from a mutual agreement to a monitor?
For example, TV Telly has a built-in camera system that customers can use to TV affair and fitness apps, as well as games and other motion tracking software.
The inclusion of the camera system was a turning point for me, especially considering how many people have covered their laptop cameras.
However, Lawrence said the camera did not record or transmit anything to Telly. It ships with a physical shutter that covers the camera that the customer has to ask the TV to open, and it has a visual indicator that shows when it’s in use.
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Lawrence says this collection of features is just one example that “highlights our approach to consumer privacy and control”.
So here’s the problem: many of the smart devices in our homes are already collecting data and selling it to data brokers — yes, I’m looking at you, Alexa.
We intentionally sign up for this process — we ‘agree and proceed’ without reading the fine print and pass our data on to tech companies without being aware of the potential implications.
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I will still test Telly TV if given the chance. I am willing to see what happens in this process and I will try to find out how the company handles my information.
But I also believe it’s important to consider how lower-income families or audiences with limited awareness of current privacy issues might be drawn into this deal, lured by promises of ‘free TV’ and used car salesman pitches.
Stay tuned as I continue.
