Breaking: Free 55-Inch 4K Telly Smart TVs Begin Shipping to Customers; Majority of Units to Arrive Around Black Friday
Are you one of the 250,000 people who signed up to potentially receive a free 55-inch smart TV from Telly? If so, you’d better start checking your mailbox.
According to Variety, the first wave of free Telly TVs are set to arrive at customers’ homes this week. The company is calling this first wave of sets its “public beta program,” which suggests that while not everyone who signed up for a TV will get one initially, there will be another round of sets shipped sometime in the future.
While the company did not specify how many units will be sent out as part of the public beta, Variety did confirm that the vast majority of the TVs will be sent out during the final quarter of the year. Telly’s chief strategy officer Dallas Lawrence said, “We think there’s no better Black Friday deal than free.” While that is not a confirmation as to when the company plans on shipping out most of its TVs, it does provide more clarity on the timeline.
Telly is a TV manufacturing start-up founded by former Pluto TV creator Ilya Pozin. His idea is simple; give customers a free 55” 4K smart TV in exchange for personal data that will be sold to advertisers. The TVs also come with a built-in sound bar and a second screen that offer sports scores, news, weather, and even a space for video gaming, along with a rotating set of ads when the set is on.
Registration for Telly TVs first began in May, and Pozin called the sets a “revolutionary step forward for consumers and advertisers.” More details emerged about Telly’s TV program in late June, when The Streamable interviewed Lawrence.
Related: Answering the Biggest Questions About Telly's Free, Dual-Screen Smart TV Giveaway
Lawrence confirmed to The Streamable that the user agreement stipulates customers must make their Telly TV the main set in their household. That will ensure the sets get enough engagement from the user to satisfy advertisers. Lawrence also indicated that attempting to cover the second screen will violate the user agreement as well, and that such violations will prompt a request from the company to return the TV. If they don’t, it could cost them.
“Consumers who violate our terms and conditions and refuse to return the Telly will be charged the $1,000 value of the television,” Lawrence told The Streamable.
Users must register payment information with Telly in order to sign up for the free TV program. It won’t be used unless the customer decides to violate their user agreement, then not send the TV back to Telly, but it is crucial information for potential participants to have before signing up. Additional rules include keeping the set connected to the internet at all times, and not installing ad-blocker software.
In happier news, all Telly sets will ship with a Google Chromecast streaming dongle, so all of your favorite streaming apps will be at your disposal as soon as the set comes out of the box. Registration is still open for free Telly TVs, so if you’re interested, head over to Freetelly.com to sign up and start watching your mailbox!