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Check the internet.
Spikes to companion sites are a leading indicator
By Marty Beard
The web may have failed in its promise to topple older media, but it continues to affirm its power to enhance those media it once threatened to displace, most notably television.
When something interesting is on TV, folks go to the web to learn more, as they might once have researched a subject at the library.
That was illustrated quite dramatically over the Olympics in the huge uptick in traffic to sites dedicated to the Games.
We're seeing it also in the strong traffic gains enjoyed by broadcast and cable TV sites in recent weeks, coinciding with season premieres and finales, most notably HBO’s "Six Feet Under" and CBS’s "Survivor 4: Marquesas."
"By providing additional programming information online, broadcast and cable networks strengthen their connection with viewers by building brand recognition and consumer loyalty both online and offline," says NetRatings internet media analyst Carolyn Clark, reflecting on the recent rise in traffic to some TV sites.
"The internet puts it right at your fingertips in terms of finding perhaps too much information."
HBO.com experienced an 81 percent increase in traffic for the week ended March 3, thanks largely to the premiere of the second season of gallows-humor drama "Six Feet Under," which recently won a Golden Globe award for best drama.
Clark says that HBO.com also has driven traffic to its web site with events tied to its other major original series, "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos."
The debut of "Survivor" caused traffic to CBS.com to leap 32 percent, to 560,000 unique visitors for the week.
"You’re seeing nearly all the top pages within CBS.com going to ‘Survivor 4’ – checking out the cast, the bios, etc.," Clark says.
And the Grammy Awards spurred a spike in traffic at Eonline.com, the web site of E! Entertainment Television. The site attracted 799,000 unique visitors, a 24 percent increase over the previous week.
People are logging on to these web sites to see programming schedules, streaming video clips and participate in fan-oriented message boards.
They can read episode guides and find such free offerings as themed desktop wallpaper and screen savers.
The CBS site offers cast and crew biographies and character profiles. The "Six Feet Under" site offers trivia games.
The goal: hook viewers in a way that brings them back again.
"If the networks and the cable stations can leverage that, they will make you want to return again and again as a user to watching that program," Clark says.
The supplementary online offerings reinforce the web’s strength as a promotional vehicle, according to Clark.
"The networks are certainly driving the message home again in front of a PC where some people spend a lot of their time," she says.
But now that they have demonstrated that they’re effective drivers of internet traffic, the networks and cable could do one better, Clark says.
"One of the key elements that we could see further used would be sustaining this traffic throughout a season.
"How can you maintain your loyal TV audience for just one show, how can you continue them on to other shows?" she asks.
"You can help do that using online by presenting other material and cross-promoting. I think that certainly we will see more of that online, similar to how you see it offline," Clark says.
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Growth of Network
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| Site |
Unique audience, |
Unique audience, |
Percent |
| 1. HBO.com |
181 |
327 |
80.7 |
| 2. Weather.com |
2,252 |
3,324 |
47.6 |
| 3. CBS.com |
424 |
56 |
32.1 |
| 4. EOnline.com |
647 |
799 |
23.5 |
| 5. HGTV.com |
728 |
880 |
20.9 |
| 6. HistoryChannel.com |
141 |
164 |
16.3 |
| 7. MTV.com |
664 |
772 |
16.2 |
| 8. FoxNews.com |
498 |
556 |
11.6 |
| 9. Nick.com |
635 |
672 |
5.8 |
| 10. LifetimeTV.com |
253 |
267 |
5.5 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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March 12, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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