Telly TVs Adding Voice Assistant Powered by ChatGPT; Company Releases Results of Usage and Advertising Studies

There hasn’t been much news about Telly, the TV manufacturer that decided to give away thousands of free 55-inch 4K smart TVs with a second screen dedicated to advertisements, of late. But that changed at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week when the company announced that it was bringing new features to its TV sets — including a ChatGPT integration — and revealed some initial results from their beta test release.

• Telly is rolling out a new, personalized voice assistant powered by ChatGPT.
• Additionally, Telly TV users will be able to utilize the second screen for Zoom calls while the first screen is in use.
• The company has released results of several studies on customer use and advertising abilities, as well.

What New Features Are Coming to Telly TVs?

The headlining new feature that will soon be available for users who volunteered to receive a Telly TV in exchange for seeing ads at all times is a new voice assistant. ChatGPT has teamed with Telly to create its new “Hey Telly” assistant, which will learn a user’s preferences over time.

The assistant can be launched using the “Hey Telly” voice command on the second screen while using the main screen for viewing. It will learn the wants of every user in the household so that responses to queries will always be personalized, and it can even be used for non-TV questions. For example, a vegetarian user seeking good restaurants for a business trip will be able to ask the assistant for recommendations without having to specify they’re looking for vegetarian food once the assistant knows that user well enough.

Other new features heading to Telly TV sets include Zoom functionality, so users can engage in Zoom calls on the second screen while they use the main screen for TV, gaming, etc. Additionally, Telly users can now access ads on the second screen with their remote while watching video on the main screen, so they can shop and see their favorite show or movie at the same time.

Are Telly Sets Popular Among Users?

Telly first began shipping out its free TV sets during the summer. The scheme was seen as a bit cynical to some observers, but Telly ensured customers went into the experiment with all the knowledge they needed to make an informed choice. So long as they were willing to answer some questions about their shopping habits, surrender some information that most smart TVs access about their users anyway and put up with constant ads on the second screen, users could snag a 55” 4K smart TV for free from Telly.

Now that most volunteers have had their Telly sets for several months, the company is releasing some details about the loyalty of its users. According to the company, the average hourly use of Telly TVs is more than twice as high as the national hourly average. This is impressive, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that Telly's terms of use require the user to make the set their primary household TV, or risk having to send it back to the company.

Advertisers are seeing the benefits of Telly’s unique setup, as well. The TV manufacturer teamed with Kia for an ad campaign on launch, and according to studies cited by Telly the campaign delivered recall results that were up to 300% higher than competitor companies measured in the control group. As expected, ads that stayed on the second screen were much more likely to create customer recall than ads shown on the main screen during traditional TV and streaming commercial breaks.

The onset of the Telly experiment may be distasteful to ad-wary viewers, but users who are ok with accepting more ads into their lives in exchange for a free TV set seem to be responding well thus far. Those users will soon be able to enjoy a voice assistant augmented by artificial intelligence, as Telly continues to tweak its sets to offer the best possible user experience.