Watch ads, get your bills paid

(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Thanks to a tiny company called BrightSpot Media, movie rental giant Blockbuster (Charts, Fortune 500) could have a powerful new weapon in its war with rival Netflix: free rentals.

When the ink dries on a pending deal, Blockbuster customers could get DVDs in the mail for free -- if they go to the BrightSpot website each month, watch ads for about 20 minutes, and answer questions about them.

Arizona-based BrightSpot started in October, but its business model -- offer to offset subscription fees for consumers if they view its video ads -- has already attracted big-league partners like the NBA, Major League Baseball, and GameFly.

By helping to provide free online sports broadcasts and videogames, BrightSpot showed advertisers it could reach the coveted 25-to 34-year-old male demographic. Ford (Charts, Fortune 500), NBC Universal (Charts, Fortune 500), and US Airways (Charts, Fortune 500) are among the 30 major advertisers already testing it out.

"The fit between message and audience has to be really tight," warns John Deighton, a Harvard business professor who researches digital and interactive marketing. So BrightSpot asks users about their incomes, locations, and what kinds of ads they'd like to see, which provides a wealth of juicy demographic details.

Says BrightSpot CEO Aaron Martens, "We have more data than advertisers know what to do with."

THE BRIGHTSPOT FORMULA:

30 BRIGHTSPOT ADS = FREE MONTH OF ACCESS TO MLB.TV

40 BRIGHTSPOT ADS = FREE MONTH OF NBA GAMES VIA TV AND WEB

Note: Based on a 50-cent per-ad average.