Sen. Barack Obama will reportedly run a half-hour paid political simulcast on CBS and NBC, just days before the U.S. presidential election.
Obama’s simulcast would be the first to be aired by a presidential candidate since Ross Perot ran a series of 15 political telecasts during the 1992 presidential election.
Perot’s 1992 telecasts drew an average audience of 11.6 million viewers — 4.6% of all viewers nationwide.  His one simulcast, carried on ABC and CBS on November 2, 1992 between 8pm and 8:30pm, attracted 26 million viewers.

The season premiere of CBS’s “CSI” was the number one ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Thursday, October 9, 2008.
ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” claimed the number two slot, and CBS’s “Survivor: Gabon” rounded out the top three.
Premiere episodes of CBS’s “Eleventh Hour,” ABC’s “Life on Mars,” and “SNL on Thursday Night” also made the top ten.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
CSI
CBS
23,485,000

2
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
14,797,000

3
SURVIVOR: GABON
CBS
13,278,000

4
ELEVENTH HOUR
CBS
11,373,000

5
LIFE ON MARS
ABC
11,333,000

6
SNL:WKND UPDT 10/9(S)-10/09/2008
NBC
10,850,000

7
E.R.
NBC
9,408,000

8
OFFICE
NBC
9,245,000

9
UGLY BETTY
ABC
8,521,000

10
FOX MLB NLCS GAME 1(S)-10/09/2008
FOX
7,735,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 9, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of just over 16.1 million viewers, …

Baidu, China’s leading online search engine, was the most popular website in China in early September, according to data released Friday by CR-Nielsen, Nielsen Online’s joint venture partnership in China with Beijing Zhongqian Wangrun IT Co. Ltd.
Between September 8 and 14, Baidu attracted 171 million unique browsers — more than double the volume of Google China, which drew 81 million unique browsers during the same period.
CR-Nielsen is the first company authorized to support the delivery of standardized Internet measurement and analysis services in China — home to an estimated 253 million …

Traffic to the presidential candidates’ websites showed continued growth during September, Nielsen Online reported Friday.
Traffic to Sen. John McCain’s site increased by 56% over the previous month — to 4.2 million unique visitors in September, and by 239% over traffic in June.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barack Obama’s website attracted 7.9 million unique visitors in September — up by 31% from August, and by 156% over June traffic.

Nielsen is forecasting sales of more than $98 billion for the November-December 2008 holiday retail season.  But amid worsening economic conditions, U.S. consumers are likely to be more cautious than ever with their spending. 
A recent Nielsen survey of 21,000 U.S. households found that 35% plan to spend less this year than they did in 2007.  Just 6% will spend more this year, while 50% say they’ll maintain the same level of spending from 2007.
Lower-income households reported large reductions in their holiday spending — but so did high income households.  In all, 37% …

Each week, Nielsen Sports’ analysts offer their take on the biggest sports media headlines.
Angels/Red Sox Match-Up Tops Division Series TV Ratings
The third game of the Los Angeles Angels v. Boston Red Sox drew the largest television audience of the division series: 6.2 million viewers.  The three other games in that contentious series also made the top ten — with average TV audiences of approximately 5.7 million (game four), 5.3 million (game two), and 4.4 million viewers (game one), respectively.
After the jump, view complete national ratings from the division series games, aired …

CBS’s “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY” were the number one- and two-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Wednesday, October 8, 2008, drawing average audiences of almost 16.2 million and 15.9 million viewers.
FOX’s “Bones” rounded out the top three, with almost 10.6 million average viewers Wednesday night.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
16,185,000

2
CSI: NY
CBS
15,873,000

3
BONES
FOX
10,559,000

4
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
7,526,000

5
PRIVATE PRACTICE
ABC
7,400,000

6
GARY UNMARRIED
CBS
7,357,000

7
KNIGHT RIDER
NBC
6,856,000

8
BIGGEST LOSER 6 10/8(S)-10/08/2008
NBC
6,556,000

9
DIRTY SEXY MONEY
ABC
5,852,000

10
PUSHING DAISIES
ABC
5,501,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 8, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 13.2 million viewers, while FOX took second place with just over 7.4 million average viewers. ABC …

Advertising by credit card services companies dipped significantly in the first three weeks of September, as the ongoing economic turmoil in the U.S. reached a boiling point, Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported Thursday.
Among credit card services companies, TV ad units for Sept. 1 – 21, 2008 were down by almost 24% versus the same time period last year.
Most of the top advertisers in the Credit Card Services category — including Capital One, Discover, Synovus, Washington Mutual, and Visa — reduced their TV television advertising activity in September.
Earlier in 2008, advertising by credit card …

This year, U.S. consumers are expected to spend more than $98 billion during the November-December holiday retail season, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Nielsen’s holiday retail forecast predicts a 4.7% gain in dollar sales over 2007.  Unit sales, however, are expected to be virtually flat (-0.8%) versus a year ago.
The forecast includes projected sales at food stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience stores, across 125 product categories tracked by Nielsen.
With the economy in turmoil, the 2008 holiday season will be closely watched for indications of declining consumer spending.  Declines in consumer spending were …

Although this year’s holiday season comes on the heels of exceptional economic turmoil, U.S. consumers are expected to spend $98 billion during November and December — a 4.7% gain in dollar sales over the 2007 holiday retail season, according to Nielsen.
NielsenWire recently spoke with the co-author of Nielsen’s holiday retail forecast, James Russo, Vice President of Food Sector Marketing, Nielsen.
NielsenWire: What is the forecast for 2008 holiday shopping season*?
James Russo:
All consumer, economic, and trade indications point to a flat-to-declining holiday selling season across the core consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories …