CBS CEO predicts extended ad payment windows for delayed TV viewing
As television viewers increasingly watch shows days and weeks after they originally air, broadcasters are trying to get paid for more of those views.
On Tuesday, CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said advertisers are increasingly willing to pay for those audience members who watch via digital video recorders, video-on-demand and online streaming.
“We’re getting closer to getting paid for every eyeball that watches our shows,” said Moonves, speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York.
It’s common for ad companies to pay broadcasters for viewership generated live and within three days of an original telecast, and Moonves said some companies are now paying for viewers within seven days -- a metric the industry refers to as “C-7.”
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The window for ad revenue could be extended even further to 30 days, though CBS would probably not be able to charge as much for those more-delayed viewers, Moonves said, adding that 85% of commercials are not time-sensitive.
However, advertisers for whom timing is important, such as movie studios, probably wouldn’t embrace a window of seven days or more.
Moonves also mentioned recent successes of the company’s young movie studio division. CBS Films’ “Last Vegas” has made more than $60 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, and its new offering “Inside Llewyn Davis” is off to a strong start in limited release and generating awards buzz.
“We’ve put our toe in the water and started to have some success and it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
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The executive got some laughs while discussing his company’s carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable that left CBS-owned channels dark for subscribers for weeks during the summer. He said the pay-TV distributor realized it “couldn’t live without” the New York Jets NFL games going into the football season.
“I could live without them, the way they’re playing,” he said.
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