Primetime Broadcast Ratings: July 30, 2008

FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance” (8,841,000) edged past CBS’s “Criminal Minds” (8,702,000) to claim the top spot in Nielsen’s ranking of the top primetime broadcast TV telecasts for Wednesday, July 30, 2008.

CBS’s “CSI: NY” rounded out the top three.

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of 7,433,000 viewers, while FOX took second place with 6,781,000 average viewers. NBC and ABC claimed distant third and fourth places — with 4,966,000 and 4,678,000 average viewers, respectively — while Univision came in fifth with an average audience of 3,786,000.

In Europe, SIM Cards Drive Mobile Phone Spending

The average European mobile consumer uses 1.4 SIM cards, according to a new report by Nielsen, released Wednesday. 

Mobile users who own multiple SIM cards are likely to spend more money on their mobile service, the findings also show. 

A French consumer who owns 3 SIM cards, for example, will spend 28% more, on average, than a consumer with a single SIM card.  Elsewhere in Europe, the numbers are even higher: +51% in Italy, +52% in the UK, +79% in Spain, and + 89% in Germany.

“The additional revenue brought to the operators by consumers who own multiple SIMs is significant,” Jean Littolff,  Director, Europe, Nielsen Mobile noted. “The more SIM cards you own, the more money you spend.”

Nielsen’s report is based on a quarterly survey of 42,000 European customers.

View the full press release.

Italian Winemakers Find New Success Worldwide

Americans are buying more wine from Italy than any other foreign country: $786 million worth over the 52-week period that ended June 28, according to Nielsen.

Wines from the Piedmont region of northwest Italy are drawing increasing respect and attention worldwide, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. 

In response, winemakers in Piedmont are broadening their lines beyond the nebbiolo grapes used to make Barolo and Barbaresco.  In some cases, they’re also modernizing their winemaking techniques — a trend that has touched off a struggle between new innovations and traditional practices, the Tribune noted.

Nielsen Mobile And Mediamark Collaborate On Mobile Audience Targeting Tool

Nielsen Mobile and Mediamark Research & Intelligence announced Thursday that they will jointly launch Mobile-MRI, an integrated database that will track the lifestyle and behavior of mobile media consumers. 

Nielsen Mobile collects data on consumer mobile usage, audience sizes and composition across all mobile media vehicles, while Mediamark provides data on media and product consumption, psychographic characteristics, and geodemographic characteristics.

Nielsen and Mediamark’s joint database will offer detailed behavioral, psychographic, demographic, and product usage information on mobile users. 

The new tool will help mobile media companies and advertisers better target audiences with mobile ad campaigns. 

View the full press release.

Read about the future of mobile media consumption in Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” newsletter.

U.S. Consumers Heed Nutrional Labels

U.S. consumers are now more likely to check nutritional labels than they were in the past, according to a new survey by Nielsen, released Thursday.  

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of U.S. Consumers reported they notice nutritional information on food packaging more often now than they did two years ago.  More than half (51%) said they always check the fat content on nutrition labels, while nearly half check labels for calories (48%) and trans fats (43%). 

Nielsen also found that two-thirds (67%) of U.S. consumers claimed they “mostly” understand the nutritional information on food packaging, while less than half (44%) of consumers in other countries reported the same.

The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey was conducted in April 2008 among 28,253 Internet users in 51 markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East.

View the full press release.

Primetime Broadcast Ratings: July 29, 2008

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” again claimed the top Tuesday night slot by a wide margin.  The telecast, which drew an audience of 13.8 million viewers, placed first in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime broadcast TV programs for July 29, 2008.

ABC’s “Wipeout” and CBS’s “NCIS” were again ranked second and third, respectively, with 9.6 million viewers and 8.5 million viewers each.

Overall, NBC won the night — with an average audience of 9,565,000 viewers, while ABC took second place with 7,694,000 average viewers.  CBS came in third with 6,616,000 viewers, and FOX trailed distantly in fourth place with 4,362,000 viewers.

Do R-Ratings Affect A Film’s Box-Office Success?

A significant percentage of R-rated dramas would earn more at the box office with a PG-13 rating, The Hollywood Reporter reported Tuesday.

Those findings come from a new Nielsen PreView study that compared the box-office performances of 400 R-rated and PG-13 films released between September 2005 and December 2007.

Nielsen’s analysis found that 34% of all R-rated drama titles would have performed better with a PG-13 rating, while about 17% of all comedies would benefit from a less restrictive rating. 

In contrast, few horror movies would have achieved higher gross earnings with a PG-13 rating, according to the study.

View an excerpt from Nielsen PreView’s study.

Traffic to U.S. Newspaper Websites Up in Q2 2008

U.S. newspaper websites attracted more visitors in 2008, CNNMoney.com reported Tuesday.

During the second quarter of this year, newspaper sites saw a 12% increase in unique visitors, compared with the same time period a year ago, according to data compiled by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

In all, newspaper sites had a combined average of 66.4 million unique U.S. visitors per month during Q2 2008 — up from 59.2 million in Q2 2007, Nielsen and the NAA reported.

British Bargain Hunters Scour The Web For Discounts

Brand Republic reported Tuesday that the fastest-growing UK websites over the past 12 months were those offering consumer discounts, according to Nielsen Online.

Nielsen’s list of the 10 fastest-growing UK websites included a site offering UK travel discounts, two coupon/reward sites, a shopping comparison site, and a site with classified ads for jobs, cars and homes.

“Sites tapping into consumer concerns about the economy, giving them the opportunity to save money, dominate the fastest growing list,” Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online, told Brand Republic.

View the full press release.

U.S. Rebates Lift Consumer Spending

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the U.S. government’s economic-stimulus payments are helping to boost consumer spending. 

A new study by two professors at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business found that a typical family spent 3.5% more on food, medicines, and other daily essentials when the rebates arrived.

The results also show that the rebates boosted consumption of nondurable goods, which excludes large purchases, by 4.1% during the second quarter of 2008.

The study, which used ACNielsen data on consumer purchases — paired with consumer surveys, is the first to calculate the effects of the 2008 stimulus program.