• by Wayne Friedman , November 13, 2013

Even as some networks have made a handful of advertising deals attached to seven days of TV viewing, broadcast network executives are already looking to viewing metrics beyond just a week.

Speaking at the RBC Capital Markets Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference, CBS CEO Les Moonves says: “We are pushing for a C7 [average commercial ratings plus seven days of time-shifted] measurement, and eventually for live plus 30.”

For example, total viewers for its live-plus-same-day ratings of an episode of CBS’ new dramatic series “Hostages” doubles through 30 days when taking into account all DVR, VOD and digital viewing.

Regarding the move to expansion of TV viewing metrics, Moonves adds: “As long as you show advertisers that consumers are watching their ads, they are OK for playing for it.”

Some marketers have begun this process. Moonves says: “We already have two major advertisers [buying through] C7.” Currently, national TV broadcasters ink deals with marketers attached to C3 -- commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted viewing.

Short-term scatter-market TV pricing -- fourth-quarter 2013 -- is up “mid-teens” in terms of percentage versus upfront pricing, as well as up mid-teens percentage versus the fourth quarter of 2012, he says.

Moonves says all this is helped by strong NFL programming. CBS is up around 3% in terms of viewership. “Football is still the best game in town.”

Although now at a lower share than in previous years, CBS still gets the majority of its revenue from advertising. After advertising, the second-best revenue comes from syndication of all its products -- U.S., international and digital, followed by retransmission revenues and reverse compensation revenue adds dollars received from its TV affiliates.
CBS has increased its estimates of getting $1 billion from retrans/reverse compensation by 2017. “The number should be higher than that,” says Moonves.

Low viewing numbers for Saturday night viewing have been misleading, Moonves says. Many viewers are watching time-shifted programming from Sunday night TV lineups, where there are many high-rated/desired dramas .