Why do TV channels need websites?

Its a question that has been bugging me for a while now - why do TV channels need websites?

Many television channels decided to reach out to their audience members through the medium of the web during the late 1990's. The BBC was one of them, creating BBC Online in 1994. However, it did not launch until 1997, when it secured governement approval to fund the website by TV licence fee revenue. Since then, the website has gone through several branding changes, changing its name to BBCi, then bbc.co.uk and then back to BBC Online in 2008. Nowadays, the BBC's website is one of the world's largest and most visited website, ranking forty-seventh most visited according to Alexa.

Nowadays, many television channels use their websites as another form of promotion, showing clips and information about upcoming shows, what is on for the future weeks and months and also information about a certain few featured programmes. This is a free form of advertising for the channel, saving them money as they no longer have to pay out as much for advertising across other advertising networks.

Another reason television channels have their own websites is to increase the popularity of the channel. Channels like Dave often have websites that are full of viral and funny content, aimed at the same audience group and the channel itself. This helps make the website more popular, as a greater amount of people visit the website when bored, therefore making the television channel more popular.

One further reason is simply to provide information. Many of the larger channels use their websites to provide information to their audience members. The BBC's website is full of information, including a television guide, the news, weather and entertainment gossip. Many people visit the BBC's website to get information, even if they don't watch the TV channels. This is one of the reasons why the BBC's website is as popular as it is.

In my opinion, I believe the majority of television channels create websites for themselves to help promote the channel. This gives the channels a major boost in promotion which would have cost them a lot if they used other forms of advertising to achieve this. One such website that is solely aimed at promoting their own channel is five.tv. Five's website contains very little information like the BBC's website, but instead only contains clips and information about its own shows, attracting viewers to them.