Credit PVR viewing and social media buzz for sending last week’s episode of Cracked to 791,000 watchers, up 43% from a week-earlier 552,000 2+ audience for the CBC cop drama, according to BBM Canada data.

Kirstine Stewart, executive vice president of CBC English services, says the premiere episode of Cracked had around 26% PVR usage, bringing the first week total audience to 713,000 viewers.

She points to a similar bump in viewership for Arctic Air, whose ratings also grew when moving from overnights to a seven-day window.

Advertisers may be uneasy about viewers skipping ads, but broadcast executives on both sides of the borders are urging industry watchers to look beyond overnight ratings to PVR, online streaming and VOD to gauge the real audience for rookie shows early in a TV season.

“That shows you the effect and power of the PVR, at least for that week and those shows in particular,” Stewart argued.

From Playback Daily