Tunnelbear: Gives everyone access to CWTV.com

[Fire And Ice]

If you are a Beastie that lives outside of the US and cannot access CWTV.com, download TunnelBear.

It allows you to access CWTV.com!!

www.tunnelbear.com/

I saw a Beastie post about it and confirmed with other Beasties. It's working for everyone. CW President has confirmed that they track internet views of all their shows on CWTV.com and Hulu, as well as downloads from iTunes and Amazon.

So if you couldn't watch the show before on CWTV.com, now you can and you will be counted! CW adds this in when they go to the final meeting to decide whether to keep a show. This is good news guys.

[Andromeda03]

This is great news!

[Fire And Ice]

So apparently there are so many people accessing CWTV.com right now it's running slow. haha! This is AWESOME!!!

But if CWTV.com does run slowly, CW has the deal with Hulu.com for all their shows and Hulu.com counts. HOWEVER, last night's episode of BATB won't be available on free Hulu until 8 days later.

Example:
Episode airs on Thursday, February 21
Episode available on free Hulu on Friday, March 1

So if you can, view CWTV.com, but if not, you can view episodes on Hulu.com as well. Just know that unless you're paying for Hulu there is a delay in access to latest episode.

---

Also Tunnelbear is free but it gives you limited bandwith. They have promotions on Twitter so you can get more. (Check their website, all the details are there).

If you want unlimited access you can get it for $4.99/month or $49.99/year. But Tunnelbear does have a free package.

[Lina]

Nice!

[evanarose]

Hmm...when I tried to download it- it keeps on saying there's a virus

There's another site I saw www.hotspotshield.com/en apparently it's similar?

When watching from cw do they only count you once? In other words, do they track your IP and just count it as one view per a computer?

So if you were it watch it multiple times, it wouldn't be counted towards the ratings?

[Fire And Ice]

Feb 22, 2013 22:50:25 GMT -5 evanarose said:

Hmm...when I tried to download it- it keeps on saying there's a virus

There's another site I saw www.hotspotshield.com/en apparently it's similar?

When watching from cw do they only count you once? In other words, do they track your IP and just count it as one view per a computer?

So if you were it watch it multiple times, it wouldn't be counted towards the ratings?

It's not a virus. Apparently some systems don't like the program because it creates a network (if you're on the free version) to track your bandwith use for the month. This is because under the free plan you only get 500MB -- but if you connect it to your Twitter and Tweet at the Tunnelbear you get 1GB added for that month and you can keep doing that and get more each month.

Various Beasties from all over the world installed it today with no issue. Everyone, from what I've been told, was super excited they got to see CWTV.com. One fan even tweeted a picture of the CW page showing BATB video beginning to play because they were that excited. Only thing I've heard is Tunnelbear was running slow for some people at the CWTV.com's website. But that could've been because so many people were accessing the latest episode of BATB now that they could. haha.

Here's an article about using Tunnelbear. (Keep in mind it's about watching UK shows, so your country choices could look different. I'm not really sure. I do know that according to its website it is available in every country except China.) Website here: bbcsherlockftw.tumblr.com/post/15003765717/how-to-use-tunnelbear

Article has something about a possible warning:
10. If you choose to go the free way, continue onward. TunnelBear creates its own random little network (completely harmless, but sort of annoying), so just let it. Any sort of warning you receive that looks like this can be promptly ignored. Press continue anyway.

But you can use the other VPN you found if you prefer. It's your computer. You download what you think is safe. Just glad Beasties are finding free ways to watch BATB.

---

Regarding the ratings, to be clear - there's a lot of confusion about the Nielson ratings system. The only way you influence the demo number that you see on sites like TVBytheNumbers is IF you are a Nielson viewer in the US - that goes for live viewing & DVR. If you're not a Nielson household or given a "journal" from Nielson for a week or month to hand-fill out, you aren't being counted when you watch BATB. (There are various services that track international #s, I think there is even a Nielson international, but I only know how the US system works and that the international numbers are released in May just before the renew/cancel meetings.)

So how does the internet count then? Well it's not calculated in the ratings we see each week, but the network gives it weight when deciding on how well a show is truly doing and whether or not it's worth saving. The CW has software that tracks site usage for CWTV.com. Also Hulu tracks what their visitors watch and with the CW deal, they share that info. It's sort of like YouTube only you don't see the counter. Every single view any Beastie makes is counted. It's not they track your IP and then block it from counting again. How would that make sense? CW wants to be able to say that HOD was watched 5000 times last month (I'm sure it's actually higher). They don't want to say only 797 people watched HOD last month. That's not to say they may not be aware you keep coming back, but then you're just a fan of the show to them. Plus you can watch various shows and various episodes of those shows. Even if they give less weight to a repeat viewing, sort of like a repeat on TV, that's still something, and with all Beasties able to access CWTV.com now, that's A LOT more views then we had a month ago.

The CW is one of the few major networks really looking at online numbers, mainly becaue they are the lowest rated network in the US. So Beasties in that way lucked out... Last year, one of the reasons for Hart of Dixie was renewed with not so great ratings is that it was (and still is) watched heavily online. Let's make sure the CW can say that about BATB too. Nikita & 90210 sell great overseas. BATB apparently is doing well overseas as well. Wouldn't it be great if they could go, "Hm, well the ratings are so-so, but look at these internet views and international numbers. Plus the fanbase is very loyal with the PCA win and various other wins. They made videos, sent us books and letters asking for a Season 2, made BATB top various social media sites..." and on and on. They discuss a lot in those meetings. The more positives they can say about BATB, the better. ;D

[evanarose]

cool thanks for the info. Yeah my antivirus program keeps on automatically deleting it as soon as I install and try to open it I'm not sure how to fix that. Though I ended up using the hotshield one and that seemed to work. No limits either..yeah there are ad pop ups but it's bareable...
Well, I know what I'm doing next time batb airs! Wish I knew sooner!
How long does it take cw to load the episode on their site?

[Fire And Ice]

Feb 23, 2013 4:29:58 GMT -5 evanarose said:

cool thanks for the info. Yeah my antivirus program keeps on automatically deleting it as soon as I install and try to open it I'm not sure how to fix that. Though I ended up using the hotshield one and that seemed to work. No limits either..yeah there are ad pop ups but it's bareable...
Well, I know what I'm doing next time batb airs! Wish I knew sooner!
How long does it take cw to load the episode on their site?

That's weird. I think you'd have to go into your antivirus and click that it was OK for that to open...but it doesn't sound like you need to since you found another site

CW puts the episode up the next day.

[pippin]

I would advise though that even if you watch through this TunnelBear, which is great to boast the CWTV.com numbers, if your country is also airing Beauty, you should watch live in your country or on your own network's website so that the international sales will remain strong. Last year Ringer sold well internationally but the international viewing (as well as the US) declined, so the international stations started dropping or moving the show even before it finished its first season in the US. Keeping the numbers up on the international stations that carry the show is important too so that overseas sales will be plus when it comes to renewal time.

[dickens]

I always watch live, buy on itunes and then view a lot on the CW site. I can't get enough of the show anyway--may as well mix it up. This program seems like a great fix for the international fans. Seems like BATB has lots of devoted beasties in many countries

[evanarose]

Feb 23, 2013 5:28:27 GMT -5 Fire And Ice said:

Feb 23, 2013 4:29:58 GMT -5 evanarose said:

cool thanks for the info. Yeah my antivirus program keeps on automatically deleting it as soon as I install and try to open it I'm not sure how to fix that. Though I ended up using the hotshield one and that seemed to work. No limits either..yeah there are ad pop ups but it's bareable...
Well, I know what I'm doing next time batb airs! Wish I knew sooner!
How long does it take cw to load the episode on their site?

That's weird. I think you'd have to go into your antivirus and click that it was OK for that to open...but it doesn't sound like you need to since you found another site

CW puts the episode up the next day.

So do they normally put the episode up before the ratings get counted? Or is that figure just the neilson ratings and they take the online viewings, etc later on?

[wenniez1]

hello beasties,

This is the beastie who came up with tunnelbear. I'm so glad to read here and on twitter, that a lot of people downloaded it. So I hope we international beasties can help in online views.

I've installed Tunnelbear on my PC and on my tablet. After that I downloaded the CW app for my tablet. So now I can watch it on my tablet. YES!!!!!!

thnx for spreading the word about Tunnelbear!! We need to watch online as much as we can, in this 3 week hiatus..

[oa]

oooo i think that the cw probably has memorized the ip of my computer cause i have seen the episode so many time that i think it just automatically knows to start playing it every time i write cwtv.com!!!

[Fire And Ice]

Feb 24, 2013 23:38:57 GMT -5 evanarose said:

Feb 23, 2013 5:28:27 GMT -5 Fire And Ice said:

That's weird. I think you'd have to go into your antivirus and click that it was OK for that to open...but it doesn't sound like you need to since you found another site

CW puts the episode up the next day.

So do they normally put the episode up before the ratings get counted? Or is that figure just the neilson ratings and they take the online viewings, etc later on?

The figure you see everyone celebrating (or griping) about on Friday is the Nielson ratings. The "final" number includes all US Nielson households live viewings plus those Nielson households' initial DVR numbers. (The ratings do add 3 day and 7 day after, but those numbers but the most important is that "final" number. Though I've heard certain advertisers do put some weight in the 3 day number. I think there used to be a 10 day number. Not sure if there still is.)

This internet "episode streaming" number is calculated and counted completely different. It is tallied by the CW itself using data it collects from CWTV.com views & Hulu.com views. There's no way for us to know this number of views, but the CW calculates the numbers of views and how that would "increase" the rating it gets from Nielson. In one of its latest press releases, CW did give some figures on percentage wise how much BATB increases with internet... BUT that was only with limited Beasties able to access the site. The more that can access via Tunnelbear or other means the better.

Feb 26, 2013 6:05:09 GMT -5 wenniez1 said:

hello beasties,

This is the beastie who came up with tunnelbear. I'm so glad to read here and on twitter, that a lot of people downloaded it. So I hope we international beasties can help in online views.

I've installed Tunnelbear on my PC and on my tablet. After that I downloaded the CW app for my tablet. So now I can watch it on my tablet. YES!!!!!!

thnx for spreading the word about Tunnelbear!! We need to watch online as much as we can, in this 3 week hiatus..

Really can't thank you enough for letting everyone know about Tunnelbear! I've been spreading the word and so many fans are so happy to be able to see CWTV.com!!

You rock!

Feb 22, 2013 22:50:25 GMT -5 evanarose said:

Hmm...when I tried to download it- it keeps on saying there's a virus

There's another site I saw www.hotspotshield.com/en apparently it's similar?

When watching from cw do they only count you once? In other words, do they track your IP and just count it as one view per a computer?

So if you were it watch it multiple times, it wouldn't be counted towards the ratings?

Do you know if hotspotshield works in China? I know Tunnelbear doesn't. Trying to find something Beasties in China that will work. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can pass along the info. Thanks!

[evanarose]

^I'm not sure if the hotshield one works in china

I did find this article alittleadrift.com/2011/04/best-vpn-great-firewall-of-china/
though it's from 2011. Think according to that it does work, but not consistently like it would in other countries but that could've changed since then