Move From C3 to C7 Wouldn't Have Major Ratings Impact

CBS Corp. president & CEO Leslie Moonves said earlier this month that he wants the advertising community to accept C7 as the standard ratings measurement, instead of the six-year old C3. A report by Adweek found that the move from C3 to C7 wouldn't move the ratings needle that much, however.

The report said that Nielsen's average commercial-minute data for the first half of the TV season (Sept. 24, 2012-Jan. 13, 2013) showed that the difference between C3 and C7 is not that much. With adults 18-49, the extra four days of DVR viewing added just 438,000 viewers, which was only a 1.3% difference, said the report.

In C7, total deliveries grew only 1% from 84.5 million viewers to 85.4 million, while the extra days added 455,000 viewers adults 25-54, an improvement of 1.3%, the article stated.

A rival ad sales executive compared it to "digging for a few extra pennies" in your sofa cushion, said the story. The report stated that analysts believe C7 isn't that important where everything is watched on DVR, since ads are just being skipped anyway, the report said.