The WB folded, and thus started the new era on The CW. The first season of The CW was rough, for many viewers didn’t know it existed and it didn’t have full coverage in all markets. They also didn’t have much money for promotion of their shows or their network in general. As a result, the shows brought over from The WB and UPN saw big ratings declines. Supernatural in season two started off at under 4 million, and ended the season at 2.7 million. The third season ratings started around 3 million, and recently, after coming back from the strike induced hiatus, hit a series low with “Ghostfacers” at only 2.2 million viewers. That would be troubling, except all CW shows are showing declines of twenty percent or more.

While it seems like a typical ratings decline, it wasn’t until this season that DVR numbers were tracked. Many CW shows saw increases of twenty percent or more when DVR numbers were factored. On top of that, many of their episodes were big sellers on iTunes and shows like Smallville and Supernatural did well with DVD sales. The conclusion was a lot of Supernatural fans didn’t go away, they just weren’t watching live anymore, because of the heavy competition from other networks (including cable) and changing viewing habits.

The problem is ratings are still important. They still result in ad revenue for the networks, and in The CW’s case, DVR numbers aren’t helping their dire cash flow situation. According to an article this week in AdAge, The CW is trying to come up with ways to get viewers to watch new episodes live. Chances are if they don’t, there won’t be a CW much longer.

Let’s face it, The CW needs all the help it can get. It’s a small fringe network that’s losing viewers and cash quickly, and cannot begin to compete with the bigger networks by traditional means. It can only survive with creative and affordable marketing strategies, like catering to fans online and encouraging them to watch live. The fans help with promotion, generate the buzz, and the Internet is the cheapest and most effective resource. Considering Warner Brothers is fifty percent owner of The CW, and part of the Time Warner family (which has a huge online presence), they already have the resources in place to make such campaigns a reality.

Networks Still Aren’t Convinced

The same AdAge article mentioned that networks haven’t figured out ways to monetize their online content. Warner Brothers already knows that there’s revenue to be made from ad-supported streaming, thus the resurrection of The WB online. After all, many popular online sites like MSN.com reported double digit increases in traffic during the winter months. Hulu.com, an ad-supported online streaming site created by FOX and NBC, launched in March and has been a steady hit. Warner Brothers even contributed some content to that site. However, Warner Brothers still isn’t convinced of the full potential of online streaming considering the shows announced to be aired are older WB hits; Friends, The OC, and The Gilmore Girls. There’s also a fear that making shows available online will ruin deals for cable syndication.