• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 9, 2014

Alarm bells for shows like CBS’ “Under the Dome”? Not exactly.

Last year’s average 2.7 rating among 18-49 and 11.3 average total viewers touted some good news for CBS -- a big new ground for breakout drama in the summer, when the network made some sizable scratch.

This year we have -- on the surface -- a different story: Through two shows, there is a 1.9 rating among 18-49 and 8.6 million overall viewers.  Declines of 20% or 30% or more in viewership are nothing to sneeze at.

But we all know that time-shifting is growing. We know that some dramas can dramatically improve their viewership by 40% to 50% or more through seven days. So those actual declines may be somewhat less.

Media buying executives will tell you CBS, as well as other networks, are increasingly making longer media deals these days that include more time-shifted viewing through seven days -- not the usual three  -- especially in the just-completed part of the upfront market. (That said, we don’t know if CBS made C7 deals for its original summer programming).

Can you compares apples to oranges, to perhaps bananas now? Nielsen will be adding in mobile TV ratings to the mix for national TV stuff. What will that mean for networks? Probably not that much initially. Confusion might reign when it comes to future viewing metrics -- not just for marketers but viewers as well.

Viewers’ mindset will certainly be different. Now, we surely know what popular TV shows are in these days. For some it might mean “Modern Family, “Walking Dead,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” or “Teen Wolf” and “Duck Dynasty.” But can you name the top original Internet TV shows? Tick-tock. Time’s up. Not so easy.  And that’s where we are headed. Figuring out what you might like  -- from any social media feed you are getting -- might be difficult.

Video trailers will be attached to help you figure it out a bit better. And your friends will tell you how much they love stuff and that will be the end of it. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

This will make it more difficult for TV advertisers who still rely on making buys based on content: digital, traditional and otherwise. Those targeting just the audience will seemingly have an easier time of it. New data flow and messaging will take over. And with any luck, you’ll be over the dome through all of it.