NBC’s broadcast of the 2008 Beijing Olympics again claimed the top slot in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime telecasts for Monday, August 18, 2008.
CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and “CSI: Miami” rounded out the top three.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SUM OLYM MON PRIME 2(S)-08/18/2008
NBC
26,374,000

2
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
8,162,000

3
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
6,380,000

4
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
5,749,000

5
BIG BANG THEORY, THE
CBS
5,468,000

6
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
CBS
5,429,000

7
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS MON
UNI
4,486,000

8
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE MON
UNI
4,388,000

9
ABC MON MOVE-WK-8/18(S)-08/18/2008
ABC
3,140,000

10
CRISTINA MON
UNI
2,662,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 18, 2008)

Overall, NBC won the night with an average audience of just under 26.4 million viewers, while CBS took second place …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
CLOSER, THE
TNT
6,419,000

2
NASCAR SPRINT CUP L (MICHIGAN)
ESPN
5,300,000

3
NATIONWIDE POST RACE L
ESPN
5,037,000

4
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
4,812,000

5
MONK
USA
4,654,000

6
LAW & ORDER: CI (ORIG)
USA
4,644,000

7
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
4,533,000

8
SPONGEBOB
NICK
4,483,000

9
NFL PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL L (BENGALS/PACKERS)
ESPN
4,143,000

10
SPONGEBOB
NICK
3,999,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 11, 2008 – August 17, 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SUM OLYM TUE PRIME 1(S)
NBC
34,014,000

2
SUM OLYM SAT PRIME 2(S)
NBC
31,593,000

3
SUM OLYM MON PRIME 1(S)
NBC
30,173,000

4
SUM OLYM THU PRIME 1(S)
NBC
29,708,000

5
SUM OLYM WED PRIME 1(S)
NBC
27,656,000

6
SUM OLYM SUN PRIME 2(S)
NBC
27,184,000

7
SUM OLYM FRI PRIME 1(S)
NBC
26,071,000

8
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
8,068,000

9
NCIS
CBS
7,218,000

10
60 MINUTES
CBS
7,088,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 11, 2008 – August 17, 2008)

Fans worldwide are heading online to take advantage of around-the-clock access to updated Olympics content and video, Nielsen Online reported Tuesday.
During the first week of competition, an average of 930,000 fans per day, from ten countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, visited Beijing2008.cn, the official Website of the Beijing Games, according to Nielsen.  On several days during that period, traffic to the site exceeded one million unique visitors.
Within China, traffic to Beijing2008.cn, averaged 1.5 million unique browsers per day during the period, according to ChinaRank, Nielsen’s China-based Internet traffic measurement partner.

Country
Average …

Mobile data cards are no longer just for business travelers, a report released Tuesday by Nielsen Mobile reveals.
Of the 13 million mobile data card users in the U.S. as of Q2 2008, 43% most often use their data card at home, while 15% typically use the card at work, and just 9% use their card while commuting. 
Most of the 1,300 mobile card users Nielsen surveyed (99%) have kept their home Internet service providers, but 59% are considering swapping their cable, DSL, and other wired Interent service for exclusive data card …

Mobile phones are more likely than ever to pop up on back-to-school shopping lists this year, The Tampa Tribune reported Saturday.
With cellular phone companies targeting more of their advertising at younger children, and parents worried about children’s safety and ability to communicate in an emergency, the upsurge in mobile phones for younger children is no surprise, the Tribune noted.
On average, each phone adds $28 to a family’s monthly cellular bill, the Tribune reported, citing data from Nielsen Mobile.
Nielsen research also suggests that children are more receptive to advertising delivered via …

The comedy “Tropic Thunder” took in an estimated $25.8 million over the weekend, knocking “The Dark Knight” down to second place after four weekends of top box office results, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 
“Dark Knight” took in an estimated $16.4 million over the weekend to raise the film’s overall gross to $471.1 million, surpassing the original “Star Wars” ($461 million) to secure second place in all-time box office rankings – behind “Titanic”.
Below are last weekend’s box-office totals from Nielsen EDI as of Sunday, August 17th. 

RANK
FILM
STUDIO
WEEKEND
 GROSS

1
Tropic Thunder
DREAMWORKS / PARAMOUNT
$25,812,796
$36.8

2
The Dark Knight
WARNER BROS.
$16,379,293
$471.1

3
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
WARNER …

NBC’s broadcast of the 2008 Beijing Olympics again claimed the top slot in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime telecasts for Friday, August 15, 2008.
ABC’s “20-20” and CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer” rounded out the top three.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SUM OLYM FRI PRIME 1(S)-08/15/2008
NBC
26,071,000

2
20/20-FRI
ABC
5,523,000

3
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
4,911,000

4
NUMB3RS 9PM
CBS
4,671,000

5
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS FRI
UNI
4,246,000

6
FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
CW
4,237,000

7
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI
UNI
3,998,000

8
ABC FRI MOVIE OF THE WK
ABC
3,892,000

9
NFL ON FOX PRESEASON 2(S)-08/15/2008
FOX
3,534,000

10
SWINGTOWN
CBS
3,240,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 15, 2008)

Overall, NBC won the night with an average audience of just under 26.1 million viewers, while ABC took second place with 4.4 million average viewers.  CBS …

British 18- to 20-year-olds most commonly visit student finance websites, while teens in the UK favor mobile social networking and online gaming sites, and children prefer fashion and entertainment sites, the Times of London and Brand Republic reported last week. 
Those results come from a recent Nielsen study that surveyed 40,000 British Internet users and identified websites with the highest concentrations of users in particular age groups.
Nearly half of all unique visitors (40%) to the websites for Student Loans Company, UCAS, and Student Finance Direct were between the ages of 18 and 22, Nielsen …

In a year of historic political firsts, cable news networks have devoted a larger-than-normal portion of news airtime to the 2008 presidential campaign, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. 
That strategy seems to be paying off, the L.A. Times noted.  According to Nielsen, Fox News has averaged 1.66 million weekday primetime viewers this year — up 14% from 2007.  Meanwhile CNN’s audience has grown by 40% to 1.06 million in 2008, and MSNBC’s viewership has increased 41% to 713,000.
The current cable news ratings increases extend a trend that began in 2004, …