Telly has started sending out the first batch of free TVs with advertising in the US

Telly is an American startup that plans to implement a very unusual business idea: it offers its customers free get modern 4K TVs — and instead of paying, their owners will be forced to watch advertisements on an additional screen located below the main one. The announcement of such an unusual offer was made in May of this year, at the same time the founder of Telly said that he plans to distribute up to 500,000 copies of “advertising TVs” by the end of the year.

The main screen has a diagonal of 55”, the additional one is a 9 inches high “band” along the main one. It will show news, weather, sports scores, and more — and to the right of that screen will be ads that you can’t skip or turn off. Moreover, it will be broadcast all the time, not only when the user is watching TV. There is no built-in Smart TV, instead the TV comes with a free Chromecast with Google TV.

In addition to actually serving ads, users agree to provide Telly with detailed demographic information (such as age, gender, and address), as well as customer behavior and video viewing information — and agree that this information will be used to display of targeted advertising. In addition, the TV is equipped with a sensor that will constantly determine the number of viewers in front of the screen.

If that’s not enough, users must also agree to the terms of use of the product: it must be used as the main screen in the home and must be constantly connected to the Internet. Any use of ad blockers is prohibited, as is physical modification of the TV or connection of peripherals not approved by Telly. In such cases, Telly reserves the right to demand the return of the TV, otherwise the credit card associated with the offender’s account will be charged $1,000 (the approximate market value of such a TV model without advertising, according to the founder of the startup).

Only two months have passed since the announcement, and now the startup reports that the first batch of such TVs has already begun to be sent to customers and should reach its new owners this week. The founder of the startup calls the first wave a “public beta test” and says that since the announcement, he has received more than 250,000 orders.