John Burbank, Nielsen Online
For years, it has been assumed that home internet usage would cannibalize live television viewing, but there’s something interesting happening between social networking and live television.  Could it be that what Pete Blackshaw termed “telecommunities” – people simultaneously watching live television programs and chatting in real time with an online network of like-minded fans - will gain scale and give consumers a reason to stick with live viewing?
Let’s look at what happened during the Oscars.
During this year’s broadcast, we used Nielsen’s “Convergence Panel” – a sample of homes in which we …

The 2009 Awards aired 26 minutes of commercials (excluding promotional announcements and PSAs), three minutes more than the 2008 event. Hyundai replaced General Motors as the exclusive auto advertiser, and aired 4½ minutes of commercials, making it the top advertiser. Coca-Cola was next with 4 minutes, followed by JC Penney, with 3½.
New advertisers for the 2009 Awards and how many minutes they ran are listed in the chart below. Hyundai, the top advertiser, ran several general ads, as well as three 30-second spots for its Genesis brand. Sprint Nextel promoted …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAY
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
ACADEMY AWARDS
ABC
SUNDAY
3,008,000

2
AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY
FOX
TUESDAY
2,899,000

3
AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY
FOX
WEDNESDAY
2,466,000

4
OSCAR’S RED CARPET 2009
ABC
SUNDAY
2,277,000

5
CSI
CBS
THURSDAY
1,669,000

6
LIE TO ME
FOX
WEDNESDAY
1,577,000

7
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
THURSDAY
1,542,000

8
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
MONDAY
1,499,000

9
ELEVENTH HOUR
CBS
TUESDAY
1,442,000

10
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
TUESDAY
1,423,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (February 16, 2009 – February 22, 2009)

2008 advertising expenditures for this year’s Best Film nominees:

RANK
FILM
EXPENDITURES (millions)

1
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
$31.0

2
Milk
$11.3

3
Frost/Nixon
$11.3

4
Slumdog Millionaire
$6.1

5
The Reader
$4.6

source: The Nielsen Company 2009NOTE: Figures do not include Internet or Outdoor ad expenditures

According to Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics Service, Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet have garnered the most buzz so far compared with other nominees in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories with 47% and 46% of buzz volume, respectively.  Brad Pitt has more than double the amount of pre-show buzz compared with Mickey Rourke (22%), who follows Pitt in the buzz ranking, and nearly triples buzz volume compared to Sean Penn (17%).  Pre-show buzz seems to be a tighter race among the Best Actress nominees as Angelina Jolie slightly trails Winslet …

Do Academy Award nominations impact the distribution and ticket sales of nominated movies? Nielsen EDI compared the number of theaters showing each movie and ticket sales before and after the nominations were announced on January 22 and found significant increases in most cases.
With the exception of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, each of the Best Film nominees saw triple-digit percentage increases in theater count after they were nominated. The increased distribution of these films also led to box office sales increases anywhere from 18% to 72% in the …

Nielsen’s list of the most-watched Oscar broadcasts since 1974:

RANK
DATE
NETWORK
BEST FILM
# OF VIEWERS P2+(MILLIONS)

1
3/23/1998
ABC
Titanic
55.2

2
4/11/1983
ABC
Gandhi
53.2

3
4/14/1980
ABC
Kramer vs. Kramer
49.0

4
4/3/1978
ABC
Annie Hall
48.5

5
3/27/1995
ABC
Forrest Gump
48.3

6
4/8/1975
NBC
GodfatherPart II
48.1

7
3/29/1976
ABC
One… Cuckoo’s Nest
46.8

8
3/26/2000
ABC
American Beauty
46.3

9
4/9/1979
ABC
Deer Hunter
46.3

10
3/29/1982
ABC
Chariots of Fire
46.2

source: The Nielsen Company (2009)

Movie buzz is up following the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and the nominations for the Academy Awards, but in recent years viewership for many award shows (including the Oscars) has actually been declining. Is it the host? The length of the broadcast? Or does it have something to do with the movies themselves?
According to a recent study by Nielsen Preview, viewership of the Academy Awards is directly impacted by the box office draw of the best picture nominees and the popularity of the host.
During the 2004 Academy Awards (hosted by …