Startup Telly Plans to Give Away 500,000 Free 4K TVs This Year. The Catch? The Sets Have a Second Screen That Constantly Shows You Ads
15.05.2023 - 11:23
/ variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ilya Pozin made a bunch of money when Viacom bought Pluto TV, the free video-streaming company he co-founded, for $340 million four years ago. Since exiting Pluto about a year after that deal closed, Pozin has been working on another startup venture — one he thinks will be a much bigger deal. On Monday, Pozin’s brainchild, Telly, comes out of stealth after two years in development. Telly wants to ship out thousands (and eventually millions) of free 4K HDTVs, which would cost more than $1,000 at retail, according Pozin. The 55-inch main screen is a regular TV panel, with three HDMI inputs and an over-the-air tuner, plus an integrated soundbar. The Telly TVs don’t actually run any streaming apps that let you access services like Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+; instead, they’re bundled with a free Chromecast with Google TV adapter.
What’s new and different: The unit has a 9-inch-high second screen, affixed to the bottom of the set, which is real estate Telly will use for displaying news, sports scores, weather or stocks, or even letting users play video games. And, critically, Telly’s second screen features a dedicated space on the right-hand side that will display advertising — ads you can’t skip past and ads that stay on the screen the whole time you’re watching TV… and even when you’re not. “Telly is giving away the device completely free,” said Pozin, the company’s founder and CEO. “The business will be entirely supported by advertising and affiliate revenue.” The omnipresent ads on Telly’s TVs makes them far more valuable than traditional video advertising, Pozin argued: “We’re not just running 15-second prerolls.” At some point, Pozin suggested, Telly users could place real-time
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