The CW Network introduced Upfront Week’s two most ambitious new ploys to keep digitally savvy viewers from skipping past its ads. The first is a Bingo-like game called CWingo: Viewers will go to CWTV.com or Facebook to find a card with images from a show, and cross off squares when the image on the card matches what’s on the screen. “Watching commercials earns viewers more squares,” CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff told advertisers today. Winners will receive prizes, of course. Another new service, called Shoptick, also will enable advertisers to reward viewers who watch their commercials. CW shows will have a visual cue telling viewers to turn on their smartphones before the Shoptick ad airs. Spots will ask consumers to do something to ”identify that they’re watching the ad,” Ostroff says. CW’s efforts to lure young viewers who watch shows online to also watch commercials appear to be paying off. The network says 94% of the digital media ads run to completion. Execs say that online viewing of CW shows is up 55% this year and online viewing time is up 175%. Only 7% of these people also watch the shows on TV.

Well how about they get a streaming client that works. Or join Hulu. Or something.
i don’t watch any of that crap, especially on the web, but i thought for that sort of viewing you couldn’t skip the ads.
just hit the ‘mute’ button…
This is fantastic – those digital numbers are AMAZING. THis totally re-defines what a “television” show is, what a “network” is, and the kind of relationship a content provider has with their audience. Bravo!
CW folks, if you read this, please know how frustrating it is to try and watch a show on your cwtv.com website. The player constantly stalls, buffers, starts over (halfway thru the show)….in short, it’s an exercise in utter frustration. Why can’t you upgrade this vital, essential component–and also put episodes online much sooner than a week later? What’s the logic behind waiting? If we didn’t watch a show last night, isn’t it better for you (and the viewer) if we watch it TODAY instead of NEXT TUESDAY…or forgetting about it altogether?
Also, in the online viewing, what’s the purpose of so, so, so many ads repeated over and over and over? Many times, they’re not even sponsors, it’s just CW promotion. Not good, guys.
Make some changes to the online process, and watch how the good will begins to flow. You have to make it user-friendly.
Of the five networks, ABC seems to have the best player, IMHO. So CW should take a queue from them.
Let me know ow that works out.
I love that they sugar coat their terrible streaming website with this news. Of all the networks, watch CW online is an utterly painful experience. Each act break provides you with 5 commercials, and many times they repeat the same commercials for every act break. If that’s not enough, their streaming engine is notorious for stopping the stream and starting over. If you want to go back to where it stopped, you have to stop at every act break, watch every commercial over again that you’ve ALREADY watched, before granting you access back to the point where their website stream FAILED.
This is absolutely ludicrous, and makes me want to tell people to avoid CW.com at all costs. Not to mention it makes me become less interested in the products they are advertising by ANNOYING ME TO DEATH with them. All four other networks, and cable provide much better service. Join Hulu, CW. You’re not doing any favors by shackling your viewers to advertisers.
Everything you just said: TRUTH! Fix the streamer, CW, please.
The only thing I got out of this is….how do you skip past commercials online?
I’m very glad I’m not the only person having had horrible experiences with their streaming website. There’s a new version online since two weeks, and so far it has worked. But it’s still ridiculous to see commercials for the next episode of the show you are actually watching in the breaks.