The total Chinese television audience for Olympics broadcasts on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, was up by 45% on Saturday, August 9, the official start date of the Olympic Games — compared with TV viewing levels from just a few days before the Olympics began, according to Nielsen.
On Sunday, August 10, the men’s weightlifting 56Kg class final, in which Chinese player Long Qingquan won the gold medal, was the most popular TV event among Chinese viewers.  More than 129 million Chinese tuned in for the final, which drew an average audience …

“The Dark Knight” took in an estimated $26.1 million over the weekend to finish first at The Box Office for the fourth straight weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 
The comedy “Pineapple Express” landed in second place for its opening weekend, raking in an estimated $23.2 million.
Below are last weekend’s box-office totals from Nielsen EDI as of Sunday, August 10th. 

RANK
FILM
STUDIO
WEEKEND
GROSS

1
The Dark Knight
WARNER BROS.
$26,117,030
$441.6

2
Pineapple Express
SONY PICTURES
$23,245,025
$41.3

3
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
UNIVERSAL
$16,490,970
$71.0

4
The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2
WARNER BROS.
$10,678,430
$19.6

5
Step Brothers
SONY PICTURES
$9,128,662
$81.1

6
Mamma Mia!
UNIVERSAL
$8,208,580
$104.1

7
Journey to the Center of the Earth
WARNER BROS.
$4,871,478
$81.8

8
Hancock
SONY PICTURES
$3,317,450
$221.7

9
Wall-E
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
$3,140,083
$210.2

10
Swing Vote
WALT DISNEY …

NBC’s broadcast of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony claimed the top slot in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime telecasts for Friday, August 8, 2008.
The Games’ Opening Ceremony drew 34.9 million viewers — the largest U.S. television audience of any Summer Games Opening Ceremony in more than a decade.  Only the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games (39.8 million viewers) attracted a larger number of U.S. viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SUM OLYM OPEN CEREM(S)-08/08/2008
NBC
34,891,000

2
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS FRI
UNI
4,319,000

3
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI
UNI
4,091,000

4
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
3,773,000

5
NUMB3RS 9PM
CBS
3,728,000

6
FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
CW
3,642,000

7
ABC FRI MOVIE OF THE WK
ABC
2,977,000

8
SWINGTOWN
CBS
2,825,000

9
ROSA DE GUADALUPE FRI
UNI
2,681,000

10
FOX MOVIE-FRIDAY
FOX
2,247,000

Source: The …

Senators McCain and Obama are each spending sizable sums of money on TV advertising during the Olympics.  But when it comes to placing display advertising online, both candidates have relatively unimpressive records, Mediaweek Senior Editor Mike Shields noted Monday in a column.
“The 2008 race has been lametastic when it comes to online advertising,” Shields wrote, adding: “McCain’s been nearly invisible when it comes to display advertising.”
Senator McCain placed 16 million online display ad impressions in June, while Sen. Obama ran 80 million impressions, Shields noted, citing Nielsen Online data. 
View additional …

Billboard executive editor Bill Werde has been named the magazine’s new editorial director.
In his new role, Werde will oversee the brand’s staff of editors and reporters worldwide.  He replaces Tamara Conniff, who is leaving to become president of music services for Irving Azoff’s Front Line Management Group.
Before joining Billboard in 2005 as senior news editor, Werde was an associate editor at Rolling Stone.  He was promoted to deputy editor of Billboard in 2006, before being promoted to executive editor last year.
Full disclosure: Billboard is owned by Nielsen.

Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Shopper Insights, Nielsen, will deliver the keynote address at Gourmet Retailer’s ”Retail 20/20″ conference on Friday, August 22 at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Uncasville, Conn.
Hale’s presentation will examine the shopping habits of gourmet consumers and explore strategies retailers can use to target those shoppers.  Hale will also discuss how increasingly blurred retail channels are affecting gourmet houseware and specialty food sales.
Visit the “Retail 20/20″ website to learn more about the conference.

Like their counterparts in Europe and North America, Chinese Olympics fans are turning to multimedia sources for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Games, according to a recent Nielsen survey of Internet users in China.
In addition to watching the Games on TV, three of four people in China will keep abreast of Olympics events via streaming online video, one-third will rely on mobile phone text updates, and 14% will view video clips of the Games on their mobile phones, Nielsen’s survey found.
Two in 10 Chinese plan to use online video streaming as their main method of …

Advertisers placed 35 minutes of advertisements during the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, according to advertising data released Monday by Nielsen.
For the first time since the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, commercial time was down — from 43 minutes and 55 seconds during 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Torino and 40 minutes during the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Overall Commercial Minutes
35 minutes (includes 5 min/40 sec of promos)
Top Advertisers: Parent Companies
1. Exxon Mobil Corp.: 150 seconds (2 min/30 sec)
2. McDonald’s Corp.: 120 seconds (2 min)
3. Visa …

During the first two days of the 2008 Olympics (August 8-9), NBCOlympics.com was the most visited, Olympics-related U.S. website, Nielsen Online reported Monday.
Yahoo’s Olympics site drew slightly larger unique audiences in the two days leading up to the Opening Ceremony in Beijing (August 6-7), but its popularity was eclipsed by NBC’s site after the Olympics Opening Ceremony aired on NBC on Friday, August 8.

Rank
(by Aug. 9 UA)
Website
Unique Audience:
Aug. 6
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 7
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 8
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 9
(in 000’s)

1
NBC Olympics
841
1,392
2,664
4,008

2
Yahoo Olympics
1,505
1,430
1,477
3,324

3
AOL Olympics
511
718
395
1,010

4
Beijing2008.cn
39
114
429
780

5
New York Times Olympics
432
369
341
466

6
ESPN Olympics
196
80
273
343

7
Sports Illustrated Olympics
458
239
293
331

8
USA Today Olympics
34
55
280
184

9
Olympics.org
NA*
10
16
153

10
BBC …

FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance” claimed the top slot by a wide margin in Nielsen’s ranking of primetime broadcast TV programs for Thursday, August 7, 2008. 
The telecast drew an audience of 9.69 million viewers, while NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and CBS’s “Flashpoint” were ranked second and third, respectively, with 7.56 million viewers and 6.25 million viewers each.
CBS’s “CSI” and “Big Brother” also made the top five.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-THU
FOX
9,693,000

2
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 8/7(S)-08/07/2008
NBC
7,567,000

3
FLASHPOINT
CBS
6,256,000

4
CSI
CBS
6,095,000

5
BIG BROTHER 10-THU
CBS
5,528,000

6
HOPKINS
ABC
4,924,000

7
LAST COMIC STANDING 6
NBC
4,557,000

8
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS THU
UNI
4,442,000

9
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE THU
UNI
4,393,000

10
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU …