Thursday, August 9, 2012

A Telltale Sign That I Have Way Too Much Time On My Hands



Get paid to watch TV? Where do I sign up?

While in NYC with my BFF, she showed me this new app called Viggle that actually earns you rewards for watching TV shows. Really? Really. Viggle users can accrue rewards points while watching TV shows that are redeemable for premiums. They are offering gift cards for Starbucks, Amazon, Burger King, iTunes and many more with your redeemable points, and things like free monthly subscriptions to Hulu and Spotify and even big ticket items like a MacBook Air or a Kindle.

Viggle uses some kind of software sound recognition, like a Shazam app, that actually listens to what TV show the user is watching. By "checking in" to a specific show, the user is awarded points depending on how long they stick with it. Half hour shows, are awarded 30 points and hour long shows, like CBS's Person of Interest are 60 points, and if you change the channel  into the show, your total is then knocked down to 10 points.

But, these days, with the Olympics, I have been accruing over 100 plus points a night with the lengthy Olympic coverage. There are also daily bonus shows where you can earn extra points for watching. Last night, the Olympic was 100 point bonus, plus 185 points for the Track and Field and Beach Volleyball coverage( I was late for check in). The nightly bonus shows are clever way to get viewers to watch something that they normally would not watch and sometimes it's even enjoyable. There are also nightly Viggle Live games that earn points for answering questions about the featured shows. The challenge for me seems to be to wrack up the most points I can on one given day. And who doesn't love a challenge? All for doing something I'm going to be doing anyway?

This morning I received 75 bonus points for watching a 60 second Pepsi Ad, and I'm wondering if I will accrue extra points for each time I watch that ad. (I'll keep you posted) In two days, I have accrued over 3000 points, which puts me a quarter of the way to 9000 points for a $5.00 Starbucks reward card. For 18,000 point I can earn a $10.00 Sephora egift card.

But the truth of the matter is this, I don't do it for myself. You know who came to mind immediately when I was shown this "Watch TV, Earn Rewards" Viggle concept? My kids, of course.

 Maybe now, I'll be able to share with them the fruits of my TV labor. I'm certain these are rewards that they can fully understand.


2 comments:

the walking man said...

Stop you're killing me here...I have a cell phone, it has no camera,no app capability and it does what a phone is supposed to do which is provide the FBI and DHS all the tracking information they need if they ever come a looking, but they have to go old school and get the records from my carrier.

Candy's daily Dandy said...

Walking Man-just as I suspected... You are stealth.. I like that about you.