Wayne Friedman at MediaDailyNews is reporting:
In its first comparison to the commercial ratings (C3) instituted a year ago, cable networks' commercial ratings are almost 10% higher in 2008 than a season ago, according to a recent report from Interpublic Group of Cos.' media consulting group, Magna.
Ad-supported cable networks grew 9% to 14.9 ratings among 18-49 viewers in prime time for the first week of the broadcast season ending Sept. 28. Cable climbed 13% to 15.5 ratings among 25-54 viewers.
[...]
That said, C3 ratings are not up as much as their respective cable program ratings--where 18-49 ratings were 9% higher to 16.3, and 13% improved to a 16.9. Magna said cable is much more dependent on repeat programming than broadcast networks, where there is less need to record and play back.
not surprising after drilling down on a couple of the detailed Magna reports you’ve posted that detail the increase in cable viewing season over season.
Just based on a cursory scan, it would seem the increases to the DVR panel haven’t really affected the commercial viewing which seem in line with the general viewing increases for cable that Magna reports. (edit: the ~10% difference between program rating increases and commercial ratings increases doesn’t really seem very big to me — though I’m sure for the advertisers, it’s a meaningful difference)