Hulu is pretty awesome. Netflix has been by my side many snowy days, but have you ever heard of HitBliss? Based out of Lexington, Massachusetts, HitBliss is a start-up company that allows users to stream the latest movies and television shows without ever entering credit card information. What’s the catch? Advertisements. However, these advertisements are not your typical pop-ups and they most certainly will not interrupt your show every ten minutes. You have the flexibility to watch them on your time.
You may be thinking that it sounds a little complicated, but, trust me, it’s really easy. You can download the application from hitbliss.com. Once you set up an account, you can go into Earn mode. In Earn mode you watch advertisements in a Pandora playlist style set-up. HitBliss does, however, implement a few tricks to ensure that you are watching the advertisements. For example, the computer cannot be muted, HitBliss must be the active window, and every now and again, the watcher must press enter to ensure that you are still physically at the computer. It almost has a game-like quality to it. As you watch advertisements, you earn money that is then credited to your HitBliss account.
You can customize how fast your earn money by entering information about yourself. Information is completely voluntary and ranges in questions from gender to search history. The nice thing is that no consumer information is released to the advertiser, and you completely control what you enter. The more information you enter, however, the faster you earn. Earning enough credit for a new movie only takes about ten to fifteen minutes, and many movies are available soon after they are released on DVD.
After earning enough credit to rent a movie or television show, you can then search through the library of content and rent whatever you choose to watch. Many rentals work through Amazon, and the rental duration ranges between 24-48 hours depending on the time period set by amazon or HitBliss.
Also, Pandora One subscriptions are also available through HitBliss with automatic, monthly renewal. No more commercials interrupting us as we jam out to Ke$ha radio for pregame or Summer Hits of the 2000s as we get dressed in the morning. The only cost? Watching advertisements.
There are a few drawbacks. Only six dollars of credit can be earned at a time. However, once you make a purchase, you are eligible to earn back up to six dollars. There is also currently a limit on how many purchases you can make in a week from Amazon, but it is a small price to pay for the amount of content that is available.
In the end, there are many reasons why I completely enjoy HitBliss. First, it shows that content is worth money. As co-founder Sharon Peyer pointed out, HitBliss deals with real money rather than a point system, which proves that advertisements can have value as well as digital content being worth money.
Let’s face it- it can get a little costly having to rent a wide assortment of chick flicks every time your roommate breaks up with her on-again off-again boyfriend. Save yourself the money and rent The Notebook through HitBliss instead! Besides, did I mention that Frozen is already available to stream?
Photo Credit:
http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/2013/08/hot-startups-hitbliss.html
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/computers/stories/how-to-watch-hit-movies-for-free
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