• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 8, 2013

Now well into April -- the thick of the pre-upfront season -- upfront revenue estimates are abounding. Barclays Capital says broadcasters will get to $9.2 billion this upfront season and cable networks $9.9 billion. Modest 5- 7% cost-per-thousand price increases are expected.

Here's what might be different this year: a continued influx of different kinds of packaged deals, including more combinations of traditional TV and digital impressions (including video-on-demand programming).

And there might perhaps be a bigger change in the form of a growing push from networks to move marketers into C7 ratings -- commercial ratings plus seven days of time-shifted viewing. Anthony DiClemente of Barclays says we will probably see more  C7 deals, though perhaps not an overall  major change until 2014.

The "traditional" Nielsen-based C3 currency --commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted viewing -- continues as a virtual industry standard for national TV advertisers. C3 started in 2007 to combat growing DVR usage by consumers.

One veteran media agency veteran told TV Watch he would not be opposed to doing a C7 deal. He didn't reveal which kinds of clients or industries would be more apt to do these type of deals. ABC and other networks have already made a handful of C7 deals, according to MediaPost.

This would be unlike the way C3 started in 2007 when major media agencies, swept up with big momentum, got most or their clients to climb on board under that new metric for the upfront.

This slow-moving trend might be good for the business by letting more marketers experiment -- kind of how digital media has been operating, with unfortunately uneven results.

Still, some would say that Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) system -- combining traditional TV and premium digital video -- has a better chance of being adopted than a move from C3 to C7.

The big fish is still TV, where marketers still want to play in large part. But Barclays estimates total upfront revenue for broadcasters will only rise 0.5%, with cable network upfront climbing a bit more -- 2% over last year's take.

Many analysts believe networks -- perhaps looking to be more flexible with marketers’ wants and needs -- might push to gain in revenue volume for C7 ratings. Estimates are that there might be a 1-2% rise in ad revenues going from C3 to C7.

Would networks offer C7 in return for some lower-than-expected CPM increases, say 4%-6%? The art of negotiation is about to begin -- and "Mad Men" just started another season. Where is ad executive Don Draper when you need him?

Correction:Last Friday's TV Watch included an incorrect description of Hopper's AutoHop feature. It allows viewers to fast-forward through prime-time commercials.