• by Wayne Friedman , April 20, 2010

Halfway through the 2009-2010 TV season, marketers continue to get more for their media dollars with commercial ratings higher than program ratings.

At the same time, this season's commercial ratings are down a bit from a year ago.

TV analysis from Santa Monica, Calif.-based media agency RPA shows that C3 ratings (commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback) are higher than live program ratings across all major demographic groups, through Jan. 10.

Most of the rise comes from the time-shifting component of C3 versus no time-shifting in live program.

"Over the past two seasons (at least), the audience is migrating to delayed viewing. The pace of that migration has picked up, this mid-season to last," says David Scardino, entertainment specialist for RPA. "I would assume it will continue if the DVR penetration rates continue to rise."

Through Jan. 10, adults 18-49 C3 rating in broadcast prime time is 5% higher than live program ratings. C3 ratings average 14.3 million in that viewing group versus 13.6 million among live programing. Young viewers are showing the biggest gain here, up 7% to 6.2 million.

Adult 25-49 viewers are 5% more than program ratings, at 12.3 million, with 25-54 viewers at 4% to 15.8 million. For all TV viewers, C3 ratings are 2% higher at 34.7 million versus live program ratings.

But the downside is that compared to a year ago, C3 ratings are slightly down compared to midseason ratings of a year ago -- 3% lower in 18-49; a 1% slip in 18-34; 3% down in 25-54; and a 1% drop in overall viewers.

Fox continues to be the bright spot and the only individual network gainer here; other networks dropped. Among 18-49 viewers, it was up 5% to 3.7 million in C3 versus a year ago.

CBS is off 6% to 3.2 million; ABC is down 7% to 3.1 million; NBC has slipped 4% to 3.3 million; and CW sank 2% to 990,000.

Through midseason, the highest-rated C3 show among 18-49 viewers was NBC's "Sunday Night Football" with a 6.8 rating; NBC's "Football Night in America" pre-show was in second place at 4.9.

RPA also notes -- as other research efforts -- that delayed viewing continues to climb.

Through Jan. 10, time-shifted viewing among 18-49 viewers was at 11% of all viewing in observing live program-plus-same-day ratings versus live-only; and 23% when looking at live plus seven days versus live. This is up from 7% for live-plus-same-day and 16% for live-plus-seven-day of a year ago.

Scardino believes that using live-only program ratings won't be an issue for marketers soon, given the growing C3 data. "They are increasing and, in the process, I think, rendering year-to-year comparisons of live-only numbers obsolete."