Anatomy of Success

In the cross-platform battle to drive visitors to TV network websites, where users can view full-episode streams of programming, ABC is leading the rest.

Overall, the ABC and NBC sites are drawing 9.5 million unique visitors a month (October to December), much more than CBS and Fox sites, which are averaging 5.2 million and 2.8 million uniques, respectively, according to Neilsen/NetRatings (via MediaPost).

For streams of prime-time episodes, ABC again leads. In October, ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives drew 3.1 million unique users.

All four networks include some sort of advertising in their streams, ranging from a small "presented by (insert sponsor name here)" logo on the top of the screen on ABC.com to mid-roll ads on CBS.com to pre-roll on NBC.com and the Fox site.

Advertisers include Allstate on ABC.com, AT&T on the CBS site, Cisco on NBC.com and Chase on Fox.