Gamefly partners up with Brightspot.TV

It feels a bit like a scam, but then again, discounted service is discounted service :-)

from JoeUser Forums

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I posted an article about Gamefly some time back, and have a Give Gamefly a try link over in the sidebar area as I like their service and feel that they are a bargain and provide great benefit for gamers (Buying console games just seems stupid to me in most cases, since they normally don't provide much replay value and drop in value so much after you play them for a while).

Anyway, I was off cruising around on Gamefly's site this evening, looking for a particular PSP game that I'm considering buying, and while there I encountered an advert/link over to an apparent new partner of Gamefly, that being BrightSpot.tv.

BrightSpot.tv is an interesting concept, but at the same time, it feels a bit like a scam and I'm just not sure how long it'll last and how much benefit it'll really pay for someone that takes a chance on it (like I have).  The idea behind BrightSpot.tv is that someone (like me) will sign up as a member there and then subject themselves to short commercial spots that they'll view and then once they've viewed the spots, answer some questions about the spot and repeat for another few spots.  No more than 6 in your que at a time apparently, with some predetermined value assigned to your participation in watching the spot.

For example, you may have to watch a spot about a movie is coming out on DVD, then comment about whether after watching the spot you feel inclined to buy the DVD or not.  (All of which seems to discount the idea that you might already have been interested in buying the DVD, but that is a different story).  Anyway, you slowly but surely provide comments and answers to BrightSpot.tv who apparently gathers up your reactions to the spots and provides feedback to the advertisers, and -- I suspect -- works on building up some targetted advertising to show you.

There's a value associated with watching the spots, so that in watching a spot about a video game you may get $0.50 credited to your BrightSpot.tv account.  You build up the credits and eventually BrightSpot.tv dumps those credits back into 'provider accounts', with the providers being companies like Gamefly.

On Gamefly's page, the link over to BrightSpot.tv mentions getting as much as $10 a month in credits towards your Gamefly membership.  Not bad at all really.  In effect, you could sign up for the minimal Gamefly plan for a regular $15.95 a month, get $10 in credit from BrightSpot.tv and only have to pay Gamefly $5.95 for a month's membership.  Not bad at all, assuming it all works as promised, and assuming that the credits you get for watching the spots aren't $0.10 here, and $0.05 there.  If the credits for the spots remain in the $0.50 range, you can sit and watch 6 spots (on your 'puter, across the intraweb dealie-o) answer a few minutes worth of questions and earn $3.00 for your BrightSpot.tv account pretty quickly.  Rinse and repeat at the next permitted interval (not sure how long between times that they restock your available spot que) and add another few $$ to your credit pool.

I assume that there's restrictions and limits on how many things will show up in your que in a week so you can't just spend say 30 minutes over 2 days earning the maximum credit.  Perhaps you can, but I'm not sure on that.  If you can, then I suspect that part 2 of BrightSpot.tv's evil plans for world domination will be that they'll suggest that you find another provider to partner up with so that you can put credits into an account there too.  Eventually they'll hook you into watching many more ad spots than you had expected, and zoom, you're too busy watching ad spots to play the games you were earning the credits to help rent.

Anyway, it's an interesting model.  How long it'll last I don't know, but I'm willing to give it a try for a little while to save a few $$ here and there. :)

14,200 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

Ah - day 2 on BrightSpot.tv and as expected, the payment (credits) earned for watching content goes down.  Figured that there had to be a catch like that in there.  Today's credits (so far) are $0.25, rather than the $0.50 for stuff I watched on day 1.

I'm guessing by the end of the month it'll be down near $0.01 per

Still, it's free, takes only a few minutes, and as long as I get some discount on the Gamefly membership, I'm happy (for now).

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Kind of figured as much   . Appreciate the followup though
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

Kind of figured as much . Appreciate the followup though

On the plus side, there were a few new places ('providers') to have credits get accumulated towards.  Napster was in the list, along with MLB.TV

Not necessarily anything that useful, but it gives me hope that they'll (BrightSpot.tv) add more providers over time and come up with some I could find much more useful.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

Following up yet again...

In the first approx. 36 hours I was able to rack up $5.00 in credits.  The spots I sat through on day 1 were worth $0.50 each.  6 total.  Day 2 the spots had dropped to $0.25 per, total of 6 offered initially.  Later on I as able to view another two spots at the same rate.  For today though, nothing offered at all, which has me thinking that there must be some limit as to how many spots you'll be offered to see in a period of time which helps slow down the earnings rate for all of the spot watching.

I'm gonna check back in about once a day over the next week and see when the next round of spots are offered.  I suspect it'll be next weekend before I see anything else at all.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

Another follow-up...  no new spots offered yesterday.

A few friends had apparently already beaten me to the deal here, but they too have reported that lately they've not gotten many (if any) spots to view either.

Darn it, free money is just too difficult to come by.