Robert already posted about how a peek at the C+3 commercial ratings has confirmed that DVR viewing past what is captured in the Live+SD (Same Day) ratings shouldn’t effect the advertising revenue of individual shows, but here’s a look at C+3 ratings from an overall network perspective vs. last season.

In just-released C3 data (commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback) for TV’s premiere week, Fox was up 16% higher in C3 ratings among 18-49 viewers versus the week ago, while CBS was 1.3% higher, per Nielsen Company data. ABC was off 13%, and CW was 18% lower, with NBC 19% below its first week of a year ago.

Even with the drop, ABC retained the top spot when it came to actual overall 18-49 viewers in C3, averaging 4.03 million in the first week. Fox was next at 3.93 million, followed by CBS at 3.79 million and NBC at 3.38 million. CW had 1.2 million 18-49 C3 viewers.

lots more where that came from at MediaDaily News.

While we constantly harp on the fact that it’s the adults 18-49 Live+SD program ratings that pay the bills at the broadcast networks, it’s really the C+3 adults 18-49 commercial ratings that pay the bills (although we, and the rest of the press rarely see them). For our purposes the Live+SD 18-49 program ratings provide a very close relative approximation of the C+3 commercial ratings and therefore the advertising potential for a show.

If you want to see how the broadcast program ratings are doing this season click here.