• by David Goetzl , March 4, 2013

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said Monday that a currency switch in the national TV market is “coming right around the corner,” referring to a move from a C3 metric to a C7 one. In order to entice buyers, Moonves suggested there might be some cost reductions for deals with the C7 currency, or the network might offer a way to dynamically insert fresh commercials after a three-day period.

Referring to a potential C7 shift in the coming upfront, Moonves told investors: “I don’t know if it happens this quickly, but it will happen within a year. "

With regard to the upfront, Moonves characteristically said CBS “will lead volume and CPM increases.” It landed CPM bumps in the 9% range last year, he said.

Separately, Moonves said that CBS holds discussions with advertisers on offering makegoods through digital inventory and has provided them on occasion.

With sports programming, where rights fees are massive, Moonves said CBS makes money on every property from the NFL to March Madness to golf.

As for retrans consent dollars, Moonves was bullish on CBS’ prospects in continuing to drive growth there from operators. “Clearly the value of the network is irreplaceable,” he said, noting that a deal with Time Warner Cable expires this year.

CBS benefits from retrans dollars it collects for its owned stations and garners a portion of dollars that its affiliates draw.

As CBS continues to gain more from subscription video-on-demand providers, such as Netflix and Amazon, what happens to the syndication market? Moonves said some deals give a syndication buyer SVOD rights for a price, while others result in CBS continuing to hold them.   

“You’ve seen a lot more creative deal-making,” he said.

On radio, Moonves said the business produces a good cash load and the company has no plans to sell it. Recently, it said it would move to place its outdoor business into a real estate investment trust. “A sizable” amount of the dollars from the REIT move will go to buying back CBS stock, Moonves said.