Online engagement by Internet users is deepening, according to a new report on the online landscape released today by The Nielsen Company. This increased engagement is in part a result of a shift toward video content and social networking as popular online subcategories.
Nielsen Online CEO John Burbank takes a look at the economic and advertising impacts of the report.

Highlights Of The Report Include

The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same …

Global consumer confidence has reached an all-time low, according to the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index [download]. Thrifty habits being formed during the downturn will carry over into the recovery.
In the past six months, the index has plummeted to a record low 77 points from 84 points. The catalyst: Latin America, Russia and other emerging nations are now feeling the full effects of a recession that began in the United States, officially, in December.
Though consumer anxieties about the economy take many forms, the most widespread fear centers on job loss. …

FOX’s “American Idol-Tuesday” claimed the top slot in Nielsen’s ranking of the top primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for April 21, 2009. The show drew just over 24.0 million average viewers Tuesday night.
ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars Results” was the second-ranked program with 14.7 million average viewers while CBS’s “NCIS 9PM Special” rounded out the top three with 12.6 million average viewers.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY
FOX
23,963,000

2
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
14,725,000

3
NCIS 9P-SPECIAL(S)-04/21/2009
CBS
12,648,000

4
MENTALIST, THE-10PM SP(S)-04/21/2009
CBS
12,456,000

5
FRINGE
FOX
9,895,000

6
BIGGEST LOSER 7
NBC
9,261,000

7
LAW AND ORDER:SVU
NBC
7,037,000

8
TWO AND A HALF MEN SP(S)-04/21/2009
CBS
6,604,000

9
BIG BANG THEORY, THE – SP(S)-04/21/2009
CBS
5,863,000

10
UNUSUALS SP-4/21, THE(S)-04/21/2009
ABC
5,809,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (April 21, …

Matt O’Grady, President, Nielsen Claritas
New data makes it clearer than ever: the U.S. is in a white-collar recession.
In the news and in our minds we understandably think of lower-to-middle income households as being the hardest hit victims of the housing, credit crisis, and the ensuing loss of jobs. But as we look back on a full year of recession, surprising patterns emerge that indicate higher-income households have been proportionately hit harder.
Since the beginning of last year, there has been a shift in household credit, according to an analysis of Nielsen’s …

Indians tend to be optimistic by default: there is a popular adage that “whatever is happening, that is for the good!”  But Indians have cause to be optimistic in the current economic environment as the global recession seems to only have just brushed India thus far.  According to Nielsen’s consumer confidence index for the second half of 2008, India had one of the highest rankings among the 52 markets the company conducted its survey.
The survey found that 77 percent of Indian respondents considered the state of their personal finances to …

As the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced, Nielsen Online released data on unique visitors to online news sites for March 2009. MSNBC, CNN, and Yahoo! News led the way, with each showing gains over last year’s traffic numbers. The BBC (up 61%), Fox News (up 48%) and McClatchy Newspaper Network (up 20%) reported solid gains while, Gannett Newspapers (down 11%), USA Today and CBS News (both down 7%) slid down from last year’s mark. The NY Times, which led all outlets with five Pulitzers, drew 7% more visitors than …

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” claimed the top slot in Nielsen’s ranking of the top primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for April 20, 2009. The show drew just over 20.5 million average viewers Monday evening.
CBS’s “Two And A Half Men” and “Rules Of Engagement” ranked second and third with 11.5 and 10.6 million average viewers.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAY
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY
FOX
WEDNESDAY
2,449,000

2
AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY
FOX
TUESDAY
2,368,000

3
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
MONDAY
2,115,000

4
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
MONDAY
1,983,000

5
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
TUESDAY
1,704,000

6
WITHOUT A TRACE
CBS
TUESDAY
1,606,000

7
CSI: NY
CBS
WEDNESDAY
1,603,000

8
60 MINUTES
CBS
SUNDAY
1,383,000

9
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
WEDNESDAY
1,354,000

10
CSI
CBS
THURSDAY
1,351,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (April 13, 2009 – April 19, 2009)

Baby Boomers may be the perfect catch for advertisers in this unstable economy, according to new research from Nielsen.  Not only are Baby Boomers spending the lion’s share of consumer packaged goods, but are also watching more TV and spending more time on the Internet than Millenials age 18-44. Boomers watch 39 hours of TV per week compared to only 27 hours a week for Millenials.   Boomers also use the Internet almost 7 hours per week compared to 6 hours a week those for those 18-44.  Read the full study here.
More …

Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights
Sales of store brands, or private label products, began to spike in 2007 just as we were seeing the first signs of an economic downturn. At first, these private label sales were driven by higher commodity prices, but volume growth began to catch up with dollar growth in mid-2008. As the economy continues to struggle, more and more consumers are replacing their branded products with private label equivalents. Store brands are up 10% to $84.4 billion in annual sales across categories …