In the mid-'90s, two broadcast networks were founded to compete with the original "Big Three" networks as well as with Fox, which after a decade on the air had begun to establish itself.
The networks, UPN and The WB, each had some individual hits, but overall they both struggled to compete and lost billions of dollars. It served as a reminder that even TV networks are just businesses, with no guarantee of profits. Some business models and opportunities don't pan out, but fortunately the parties involved were able to try out new ways to please the viewers.
In September 2006, their owners, CBS and Warner Bros., essentially merged the best content from the two networks to form The CW. The CW hasn't catapulted to the top, but it is now occasionally competing among the likes of NBC, making it appropriate to start speaking of a new "Big Five".
The CW's website, CWTV.com, is made to appeal to its young female target demographic. The CW is banking on using lots of online show-related content and social networking to keep its audience engaged and coming back.
It has all the usual tokens in spades, and more. To start, it has plenty of mobile content, photos of the shows and their stars, games, and downloadable content like buddy icons and wallpaper. And all its most popular programs have their own themed widgets. The site also offers a calendar with trivia such as celebrity birthdays to sweeten the fact that it also delivers info about its shows.
But there's also a section devoted entirely to the music of The CW's prime-time series. Several of The CW's series serve double duty as promotions for musicians, which is handy when you run a music label in addition to a TV network.
At the end of each episode of several programs, viewers see an announcement of which bands played the music that was featured in the show; they can also go online to see a list of which tracks played in which episodes, often with a direct link to buy the song online. The audience likes it because it exposes them to new music, and content creators can use it to make up for sagging revenue in both music and television.
Working in a similar fashion is the CW Style section, which (when available) allows viewers to find clothes similar or identical to the ones worn by stars on half a dozen of The CW's hottest shows.
Also helping to keep the audience engaged is The CW's embrace of forum boards (with tens of thousands of members) and new media staples like social networking--the Facebook fan page for The CW is well over 50,000 strong--and personal blogs.
Even the video player is evidence of this "audience engagement" strategy: it doesn't have any fancy controls (you can send custom clips via email and expand video to fullscreen) or superior quality, but it does have "The CW Bonus Box" in which trivia about the show and little quiz questions appear during video playback.
CWTV.com really is all about keeping the viewers' attention, making their favorite shows part of a lifestyle, and drawing them back week after week.
Neither UPN nor The WB could survive alone, so they experimented with a new business model that has started to prove successful. CWTV.com is part of that model, providing extra value to keep viewers involved, and from the looks of things, it's working.
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