is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
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Back in 2023, Telly CEO Ilya Pozin came on The Vergecast and made a surprisingly compelling case for the existence of a TV that doesn’t cost you a dime — but shows ads all the time. It’s a reasonable business model, and a pretty good deal for consumers! But as The Verge’s Emma Roth discovered, the reality of the situation is a bit different.
After that, Emma joins the show and we get deep into life with Telly. Emma tells us about the TV’s unusual hardware and impressive feature set, explains the deeply odd AI newscast that shows up every time you turn the Telly on, and walks us through how it actually feels to have a bunch of ads running all the time. We also wonder: what if, instead of being free, Telly was expensive? Could it be more compelling?
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first in Amazon and Google smart home news:
And in all things Telly:
And in the lightning round: