• by Wayne Friedman , September 30, 2013

Following in the footsteps of other networks, ABC has disclosed current viewing -- traditional, time-shifted and digital viewing -- for one key up-and-coming show, its new drama "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," which debuted last week to big numbers. After five days, “S.H.I.E.L.D." posted 22.1 million average viewers -- up from its initial Nielsen live program-plus-same-day score of 12.1 million average viewers.

The show added 3.7 million in time-shifted viewing -- DVR and video-on-demand services -- through days one through three. Another 4.7 million came from reruns of the initial episode in the days after its initial traditional TV run. It pulled in another 1.6 million from digital online viewing platforms.

ABC says its key 18-49 viewership grew from a strong 4.7 rating to a 6.5 rating when includes time shifted viewing from DVR and VOD through days one through three.

National TV advertisers typically pay for their commercials by the average commercial minute, measured by Nielsen, from a show's live airing through three days of time-shifted viewing. This includes airing on video-on-demand services, but Nielsen only accounts for this if a show runs the exact same commercials through that time period.

Previously, Fox's “The Following” (a new rookie show from last season) and CBS' “Under the Dome” (a summer drama just completing its initial original episode run) released similar traditional, time-shifted and digital viewing data for its initial series episodes.

For example, “Dome" -- which started up this past June -- had 19.9 million viewers/usage from all its TV-video platforms through the show's first seven days. It had 13.5 million viewers when looking at Nielsen's live-plus-same-day time-shifting data, and 4.23 million of DVR time-shifted viewing through seven days. Video-on-demand airings pulled in 1.6 million in extra viewing through 22 days; online streaming of the show through 22 days added in another 484,542.

Back in April, soon after the launch of midseason drama “The Following,  Fox noted that there were 17.14 million viewers for its initial episode. It breaks down this way:  8.2 million viewers coming from the live program-plus-same day metric; 3.94 million from DVR time-shifting through seven days; 2.61 million from reruns of that episode; 1.07 million, video-on-demand from day 4 through 14; and 1.34 million from streaming video platforms Fox.com and Hulu.com.

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