• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, April 10, 2014

The consensus seems to be that this year's upfronts will see an increase in the number of deals struck on the basis of C7 viewing data (live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing). All of that is pretty much in line with what has started to quietly occur in the ordinary run of things.
 
C7 is far from being the norm for deal-making, but nor was C3 at one time not so long ago.
 
The logic for the increased relevance of C7 to the buying and selling process is fairly compelling, but there’s one thing that even the full week of time-shifted viewing that it captures doesn’t address. And that is our love of binge-viewing.
 
By definition, binge-viewing consists of, at the very least, two episodes of a series. Most often, it will involve more — this is a major driver of the success of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services.
 
So any show which is recorded on the DVR when broadcast live and then stored for subsequent bingeing is unlikely to be captured within the confines of C7.
 
The same applies to shows that only become available in the OnDemand space within a day or so of being broadcast each week.
 
Building up the collection of shows to be binged upon takes significantly longer than seven days, so right now that percentage of viewing isn't being monetized.
 
I couldn’t tell you just what percentage of viewing that is, but it’s likely to be significant in monetary terms. And its also likely to continue growing as our love affair with bingeing and the control over the where, when and how of our viewing experience blossoms.
 
How long then before we start to look at C7 in the way we look at C3 now?
 

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