This TV costs nothing if you’re ok with ads and data sharing

There’s a new kind of TV in town and it’s called the Telly, and it’s made by a company of the same name. Helmed by the co-creator of Pluto TV Ilya Pozin. It comes with a number of features you’d find on other smart TVs from bigger brands like Samsung, LG, and others. But it differentiates itself in one major way.

It doesn’t cost you one single cent. The Telly, is completely free. At least from a monetary cost standpoint. See instead of paying for the TV with money, you watch ads and agree to share data on the stuff you watch. In turn, this is essentially paying for the TV.

The concept of things being free at the cost of ads is nothing new of course. You see it every day in everything from your email to the streaming services you may watch. But this is pretty uncharted territory for actual hardware. The TV is comprised of two displays. The main panel which Pozin calls the ‘Theater Display,’ and a smaller ‘Smart Display’ that sits below the main panel. A soundbar connects the two.

The Telly TV constantly shows ads on the smaller smart display

If you’re worried about the ads interrupting your viewing experience, it seems like you don’t need to be. According to The Verge, the smart display below the main panel is where ads play.

They are up constantly though. The TV also comes with an embedded camera and microphone that can gather data on the video and audio from stuff you watch. Which then presumably plays a role in serving up the ads that pop up on the smaller display. The camera does have a privacy shutter which is enabled by default, but the TV will no doubt pose a privacy concern for some regardless.

The camera can also serve up motion-tracking fitness programs or be used with onboard games. Weirdly enough, the TV does not work with streaming services like Netflix. It does however come with an Android TV dongle you can plug in and access those services from.

If you’re interested in a Telly TV, you can sign up to reserve one of the 500,000 units that are launching within the next few months. Worth noting though, is that if you choose to opt out of the ads and data collection, you have two following options. Send the TV back, or Telly will just end up charging you $500 for the TV.