Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice
Over the past few months, the government’s interest in the practice of handset exclusivity has intensified. On the heels of Congressional hearings in July, Verizon Wireless agreed to dial back its exclusive deals with cell phone manufacturers to accommodate smaller carriers. This week the FCC, which has already begun a review of handset agreements, has made the issue a focus of its regular monthly meeting. But no matter what the setting or circumstances, whenever U.S. lawmakers and regulators discuss competition in …

Maggie Gray, Research Analyst, Online Division
When Sen. Edward Kennedy died late on Tuesday Aug. 25, a year after his 2008 appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, news coverage and online discussion began in earnest as soon as the Kennedy family made the announcement.
By the end of Wednesday (Aug. 26) Kennedy attracted nearly 1% of all blog buzz, according to Nielsen’s BlogPulse search engine, and by Thursday morning (Aug. 27), he was the most-discussed person in the blogosphere. His New York Times obituary was also the most-cited news …

Julie Enzweiler, Automotive Research Director, Online Division

Despite the negative online buzz that the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program received pre- and post-launch of the program, it appears to have been incentive enough to spur many consumers back into their local dealerships and to the Web to discuss and to research both the rebate and the automotive manufacturers themselves. In the two weeks following the launch, overall buzz for the government program increased 123 percent. However, in the last few weeks we have seen buzz levels begin to decline.

Melissa Davies, Healthcare Research Director, Online Division
Just as the offline conversation about health care reform is growing in the U.S., we are watching the online discussion grow and evolve as well. In the past month, health care reform discussions have increased by more than 1,000 percent, outpacing the online talk surrounding Swine Flu and the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program.

President Obama is keenly aware of the important role that bloggers play in sharing information about health care reform. On July 20, the President called for bloggers to help drum up …

Is the President Seeking to Connect with Mainstream America by Choosing Bud Light?
The White House announced that the President will be drinking Bud Light at tonight’s much-publicized “Beer Summit.” Consumer and media research firm Scarborough Research shows that Bud Light is also the beer choice for politically mainstream Americans. Bud Light drinkers (ages 21+) have no distinct political profile. They are just as likely as all drinking-age Americans to consider themselves Democrat, Republican, or Independent, and are average for voting in presidential, statewide and local elections. Bud Light drinkers are …

Recent discussions of a new U.S. health care plan have focused as much on wealth as they have on health.  To help pay for expanded coverage to the estimated 40-50 million uninsured Americans, proposals in the House of Representatives have centered on a “wealth surcharge” for high income households. The surcharges include one focused on those with combined incomes over $350,000 annually, and another on those with incomes over $1,000,000.
Looking at 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) across the U.S., Nielsen Claritas demographic data shows that just over 800,000 households (roughly …

Draws 4.1 Million Fewer Viewers Than Third Press Conference
In a continued push for congressional support of health care reform President Obama held his fourth prime time press conference on Wednesday July 22, 2009. The conference was carried live from 8:00PM to approximately 9:00PM on 11 networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 24,682,519 viewers and had a combined household rating of 16.3. The networks carrying the press conference were ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision*, Telemundo*, BBC-A, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

Viewing to last night’s press …

Consumers in 10 of the world’s top economies continued to be wary of spending their money in May, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Economic Current, which provides a snapshot of global consumer and retail trends across 10 countries which represent nearly 65 percent of global GDP.  Tracking key performance indicators, Brazil and the U.K. led the pack with solid improvements in their scores, while the U.S. and Canada showed declines.  The rest of the countries tracked (China, France, Germany, India, Italy and Spain) showed no movement from …

Analysis by Emily Luger, Nielsen Online
The Iranian election is yet another watershed moment in the ongoing evolution of news and media, further blurring the lines between being, reporting, and following the story. In the two weeks since the controversy and conflict surrounding the election, a number of insights have emerged about how the Internet and social media continue to be a transforming force for the News industry. Initial Nielsen analysis of search results provides some conclusions, while others areas beg additional probing.
Findings from an  Internet snapshot from June 18, 2009:

Wikipedia …

As the global economy appears to be bottoming out – at least in some parts of the world – questions still remain as to why so many people worldwide were blindsided by the severity of the crisis. Part of blame, it seems, may rest with the media.
According to a recent 52-nation online survey conducted by The Nielsen Company, the general consensus among consumers across much of the world is that the media did a poor job informing the public about the issues leading up to the current financial crisis.
In every …