Is The CW the fifth major network in the United States of America?

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction (What is the CW?) The term crisis is drastic but could be applied in the context of the current American television market. Due to the waste amount of online material spread all over the world wide web for free, online recording and TIVO, the financially necessary advertisement business is shrinking. The major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) have a variety of shows that produce week after week solid ratings and high market shares but the young network The CW is struggling. This network launched at the beginning of the 2006-2007 television season and now after approximately three years it is time to take a closer look whether it has been a success or not. In the beginning The CW claimed to become the fifth major network in the US - let's check whether it was a prophecy or false hope. In order to accomplish that I will provide a brief historical overview of the network, the shows, its market placement and the website. [...]