What will the ratings currency be once the 2015-2016 Upfront is said and done? C3? C7? C1? C30?

With the rapid growth of Households with DVRs, the industry shifted from Program Live ratings to C3 ratings in the 2007-2008 Upfront.  “C3” stands for commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifting.  In last year’s upfront networks pushed and some advertisers agreed to guarantee their deals on C7 ratings.  The vast majority, however, did not, and given that it was a buyer’s market the networks weren’t able to push it through to become the industry standard.

In this year’s upfront networks are pushing even harder to shift to C7 ratings in order to monetize those additional days of playback.  For many advertisers whose messaging is time-sensitive, these additional days are not valuable to them.  It’s not going to help a movie’s opening weekend if a viewer sees their commercial the following Monday,  or a retailer promoting a limited time offer when the commercial is seen after the sale. Additionally, Nielsen reports that shifting from C3 to C7 barely moves the ratings needle, yielding roughly 1-2% increase.  The further out a viewer watches a program on their DVR, the more-likely they are fast-forwarding the commercials causing them to be thrown out of the rating.

Recently, 20th Television threw its hat in the ring offering to guarantee deals on C1 ratings.  This is not a huge stretch for them as they have long touted that 97% of their programs, like off-net sitcoms Modern Family, Family Guy, and How I Met Your Mother, are viewed live.

Now CBS Corp’s Leslie Moonves is calling for C30 ratings, citing that “85% of advertising is not time sensitive.”  More likely, broadcast ratings are declining, and the networks are desperate to find ways to monetize every viewing of their programs.  The first 3 days of VOD has already been added to the C3 rating for the broadcast networks primetime programming.  And the networks are already in-front of the upfront pitching their digital video offerings.  Nielsen is scrambling to successfully monitor the “Total Audience” across all of the available platforms.  Imploring digital marketers to aid them in this with their “Total It Up” marketing campaign lunched this week.

It is unclear at this time if the industry will make the change to C7 in this upfront as there are strong proponents on both sides of the fence.  Early indicators are pointing to a stronger marketplace, so the networks may have the opportunity to push it through.

For additional information of these topics:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/245110/twentieth-television-offers-new-c1-rating-guarante.html

http://www.adweek.com/news/television/les-moonves-mission-c7-currency-147995

http://adage.com/article/media/moonves-day-cbs-strike-c30-deals/245621/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/nielsen-total-audience-measurement-digital-age_n_6847460.html

 

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