New App Pays You To Watch Television
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - You settle into favorite chair grab the remote and mind meld with the television for an average of four hours every day, according to the folks at A.C. Nielsen.
So, what if you could get paid to watch television?
KDKA-TV's John Shumway spoke with Jason Reindorp via Skype about how to do just that.
"Viggle is a loyalty program for television," Reindorp said.
It is kind of like Giant Eagle's Advantage Card, only for television watching.
After downloading the Viggle app, you enter your name and a password and you are ready to go.
"You just tap the 'check-in' button. Viggle will listen and take a tiny little audio sample and convert it into a code and then it will recognize the show and check you in," Reindorp said.
The best part is that you choose what you want to watch. The Viggle computers are constantly monitoring the top 175 channels in the United States, which pretty much covers most of what we watch.
How much television you watch is completely up to you, but the more you watch, the more you get paid.
"From the time you check into a show until its end - the scheduled end - you will get a couple of points per minute," Reindorp said.
The television providers are using Viggle to boost viewer loyalty by offering check-in bonuses
"They are going in and trying different amounts for check-in bonuses. They're trying different ways of kind of promoting their shows within the app," Reindorp said.
You find the bonus offerings in a tab on the Viggle app.
"If you check in to a show with a bonus after you watch the show for 10 minutes, then you get awarded that 250 points of whatever it is," Reindorp said.
Viggle also allows you to rack up bonus points in other ways.
"There are a bunch of movie trailers or show clips or games or trivia questions and if you get engaged with those things, then you get points for doing that and getting right answers and that kind of stuff," Reindorp said.
Meanwhile, Viggle is making money by selling the advertising that pops up as you navigate the site.
"What we're offering our advertisers is a way to do more than just a billboard or something like that," Reindorp said.
Reindorp said Viggle is not turning over any information about you or your viewing habits to any advertiser. In fact, the information the television networks get is aggregate quantity of viewing, not individual choices.
Your participation can end with checking in and watching the points roll in.
You don't get paid in cash necessarily. You're getting two points per minute, plus bonuses and Viggle has a rewards button that displays the variety of things you can redeem your points for.
Some of the items include movie tickets, gift cards and music downloads.
You can even get iPods and Amazon Kindles and the list of rewards products is growing.
For more information about the app, click here.
RELATED LINKS
More Local News
More Consumer News
More Reports From John Shumway
Viggle
