What if I told you you can get a brand spanking new 55-inch 4K OLED Smart TV for FREE? ‘Ok, but what’s the catch’?

Theunis Janse van Rensburg brought some rather interesting news to our Tech Tuesday chat this week. That being that US company, Telly, looked at its business model from a different angle and have decided to give away a state-of-the-art TV. FOR FREE. In exchange for your data (there it is).

Listen to my full chat with Theunis HERE

A high-quality TV with some very cool features

You see, this TV has an extra screen at the bottom of the main screen, nestled below the built-in soundbar. And is used to show advertisements while you are watching your favorite show. 

Remember when I mentioned exchanging your data? Basically, those ads are marketed to your interests, the lowers screen can also display the latest market updates and weather widgets and so on.

To be honest, if it would ever launch here in SA, I will most certainly be running to get my hands on it. Mainly because this is a seriously high-quality TV with some very cool features: video-call functions and Zoom compatible, motion-tracking fitness and gaming capabilities.

Listen to my full chat with Theunis HERE

Also, it needs Internet to work

When it comes to the little panel at the bottom – I won’t lie – my first thought was, isn’t there a way to hide it?

The short answer is no. The long answer is that the TV is designed in a way that all your important inputs are positioned in the secondary screen, making it very difficult to ‘hide’. Another reason is that the TV requires an internet connection – to facilitate viewing – to display the ads.

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Now you might be thinking that you are real clever, and you can just bypass this with a simple disconnect-from-network move. Bad luck, Telly has thought of that too. They have installed a kill switch, meaning, if the TV has no internet access, no TV for you buddy.

But all in all, I don’t think it will bother me all that much. The ads are running separately from the main screen, and I think it looks pretty cool. AND, you get VERY good bang for NO bucks! I think something like this could definitely work here in SA…Here’s to hoping!

Listen to my full chat with Theunis HERE