Disney CEO Bob Iger echoed CBS’ Les Moonves in advocating a change in TV ad sales to include all ad views in the seven days after a show airs — up from the current three. The “story of the year,” he told analysts this evening, is the “greater penetration of DVRs and the greater usage of DVRs.” That has contributed to the startlingly big decline in prime time ratings at the major broadcast networks. That would seem to justify “an expanded look from a Nielsen and an advertising perspective at seven days versus three.” Unlike most other execs, Iger says that the networks may bear some responsibility for their ratings. “There seems to be an absence of new, big, buzzworthy hits,” though he says it’s too early to write off the season. He also says he believes ABC’s schedule is pretty solid. He identified Nashville as one of the series that he thinks could catch on. But he adds: “Would I like ABC to put on the schedule a big hit at the beginning of the year? Of course.”
Related: Disney Matches Fiscal Q4 Earnings Estimates But Falls Shy On Revenues

Hey dumbass, your ratings are low for primetime programming, because ABC is being boycotted by millions of upset soap fans….this guy is so stupid, does he even have a brain to even run a business?
Iger runs a billion dollar empire. You run a roadside taco stand.
Case closed running a business.
Right on.
Why should advertisers change their plans to accommodate the networks? The advertisers are the clients. if advertisers need ads to run within a three day window (the usual example being, movies advertised on Thursday and aimed at a weekend audience), then they will shop around till they find someone who can sell them what they want.
Or, they might take a seven day window for products where tha makes sense but I would expect they would demand a discount for the less-targetd buy.
I’m with Iger. I don’t watch any ABC shows, but the shows I do watch I very rarely watch the night they air. I wait until the next weekend when I have the time. And realistically, spending time on entertainment sites I think its pretty clear what shows the people love…. something is up when they are mysteriously canceled due to low ratings… and yet everybody is talking about them.
P.S: Nielsen needs to go. Time for the fans to determine the hits, not whatever mysterious system they use for counting viewers.
Broadcast networks are stuck in a 1950′s mindset, gone are the days that families sit in front of their 24″ Dumont television. Families watch on everything from a 4″ cell phone to a 10″ tablet to a 80″ LED set, and they watch ANYTIME they want, whatever they want. Broadcast networks and the rating system they use need to come into the 21st century and stop using a business model born in the 1950′s.
It’s broken, it has nothing to do with the loss of Soaps (another 1950′s relic, that is going) if it was only ABC would be down instead everything is down.
Sure enough, the response is in an article here today. Advertisers will accept a less targeted buy, but will demand a discount to compensate. Plus, we have options and maybe we’ll move our ads off TV altogether, so you better do things our way. Advertisers have all the power here. He even used the same movie ad example I did. They love to use that example.
“Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has indicated that he likes the idea — but his support is qualified: “If it’s a movie coming out in three days…we’re not going to get the benefit of those [additional] viewers,” he told analysts in a call to discuss earnings. In that case, “we’ll have to look at those numbers and get some kind of adjustment.” Lionsgate has options if that doesn’t happen — or even if it does. “There’s no question that we are seeing significant amounts of awareness from social media and the Internet, and that’s going to give us a tremendous opportunity to reduce our overall marketing spend,” he says.”