Viewership levels for the NHL playoffs are up compared to last year on both Versus and NBC, a trend that may continue with a Stanley Cup Finals featuring two hockey crazed cities, Detroit and Pittsburgh, and one of the NHL’s brightest stars, the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby.
 

But just as important as the raw viewership for the NHL and Versus, which is available in 66% of US homes, is the brand behavior of these viewers.
With advertising dollars tight in the current economic climate, the pressure is even greater for sports leagues to demonstrate return …

Electronic Arts enters into fitness gaming this week with the release of EA Sports Active for the Nintendo Wii. The game features a range of fitness activities plus mini-games that focus on specific sports like in-line skating and basketball. Generally,  EA Sports is a brand synonymous with male-skewing sports franchises like Madden, but as apparent from the box art, the title is being marketed more to women. So how do men and women compare in terms of key purchase metrics for the title?
Based on Nielsen Video Game Tracking data from …

Matt Foran, Nielsen Sports
While controversy seems to follow Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez wherever they go, Nielsen Online buzz data reveals that, when it comes to buzz, steroids trump all of their on-field accomplishments. Of all the online discussion over the past year surrounding Manny Ramirez, Internet buzz peaked last week when it was announced Ramirez was suspended 50 games for using performance enhancing drugs.
Buzz For Manny Ramirez

Nielsen Games released its March 2009 data for top console usage and PC game titles with Playstation 2 and the role-playing game World Of Warcraft again topping their respective lists.

The 2008 Kentucky Derby boasted the third straight year in viewer growth and females comprised 51%  of all viewers aged 18+, no small feet considering the often male-dominated world of sports viewing.
The overall number of viewers tuning in to see Big Brown win last year’s Derby averaged 14.2 million, 10 percent more than the 12.9 million viewers who saw Barbaro in the winner’s circle just two years earlier.
But the real “horserace” – at least when it comes to Derby viewing – is between men and women, as illustrated in a …

The much anticipated X-Men Origins: Wolverine hits movie theatres this weekend, marking the fourth installment in the running series of X-Men movies. The theatrical debut coincides with the release of the video game based on the movie, just as was done in 2006 with the third movie X-Men: The Last Stand. While the box office comparison between the two movies is yet to be determined, if gamer anticipation is any indication, things are looking up for the franchise’s game based on Nielsen’s weekly Video Game Tracking survey.

The appeal of the NFL draft to fans is soaring, with viewership jumping 62 percent over the last six years, according to Nielsen data.
Last year, more than five million viewers tuned in to watch a draft where an offensive tackle (Jake Long) who had already agreed to a deal earlier in the week with Miami was drafted by the Dolphins as the number one pick. That’s almost two million more viewers than in 2002 when the Houston Texans drafted top pick David Carr, whom the franchise hoped would be their …

With several high profile games released in the past few months, chalk one up for Halo Wars.  According to Nielsen’s weekly Video Game Tracking survey, the title generated the highest definite purchase interest among games in the week of their release for any title released through April 18 this year. In the week leading up to its March 3rd release in the US, 23 percent of gamers had strong purchase interest for the real-time strategy off-shoot of the immensely popular Halo trilogy. It narrowly beat Resident Evil 5 which garnered …

Monitoring traffic to three major web properties – ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and CBS Sports – during the recent NCAA Basketball Tournament shows a spike in activity over last year (Y-O-Y) and the boost in traffic compared to the previous month (M-O-M).

Unique Audience  And % Change

Site
Mar-08
Feb-09
Mar-09
M-O-M
Y-O-Y

CBS Sports
15,106,000
10,684,000
18,127,000
70%
20%

ESPN
19,844,000
17,181,000
22,938,000
34%
16%

Yahoo! Sports
19,432,000
24,953,000
25,515,000
2%
31%

Source: Nielsen Online

Additionally, video streaming on CBS Sports saw massive gains during the tournament, with nearly a 300% gain in unique users watching video. Those viewers racked up more than 380 million minutes of viewing time in March.

CBS …

As the 2009 Masters gets underway this week, The Nielsen Company looks at the tournament’s final round ratings during the reign of Tiger Woods. Starting in 1997, when Woods won his first of four green jackets, his presence at the top of the leaderboard has been ratings gold.

Ratings For The Masters Golf Tournement: 1997-2008

Year
Woods Result
Viewers P2+

1997
Won
13,685,000

1998
T-8
9,957,000

1999
T-18
9,993,000

2000
5th
10,061,000

2001
Won
13,638,000

2002
Won
9,694,000

2003
T-15
8,811,000

2004
T-22
7,913,000

2005
Won
10,778,000

2006
T-3
9,298,000

2007
2nd
10,152,000

2008
T-2
9,711,000

Source: The Nielsen Company / All telecasts on CBS

In tournaments won by Tiger, CBS averages 11.9 million viewers during final round coverage. In each tournament since 1997 NOT won by Tiger, viewership for …