Nielsen Wire » broadcast network ratings

Day 3 DNC Ratings For Clinton, Biden Dip Slightly

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:25:02 +0000

More than 24 million people watched the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention — a 7.5% decrease from 26 million viewers on day two of the convention.

Wednesday night’s speeches, which featured Former President Bill Clinton’s endorsement of Senator Obama and Senator Joseph Biden’s acceptance of his party’s nomination for vice president, drew 12.2% of all African American viewers — down slightly from the prevous night when Hillary Clinton addressed the convention (12.7%), but up from day one (12%), when Michelle Obama spoke.

Viewers age 55 and older continue to dominate the DNC’s TV audience, with 18.1% of all Americans in that age group — 12.5 million people — tuning in to Wednesday night’s convention coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.

	RATING	NUMBER
All Households	16.4	18,481,000
Persons 2+	8.4	24,029,000
Persons 12-17	1.9	440,000
Persons 18-34	4.7	3,131,000
Persons 18-49	6.2	8,153,000
Persons 55+	18.1	12,509,000
African American Persons 2+ *	12.2	4,413,000
Hispanic Persons 2+ *	2.7	1,159,000
White Persons 2+ *	8.4	18,125,000
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 27, 2008)
Figures are the sum of the networks during the common hour of coverage. Included networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
*Ratings for African American, Hispanic, and White viewers show the percent of African American, Hispanic, and White persons age two and older in TV homes watching the convention coverage.

In comparison to day three of the 2004 convention, which drew almost 18 million viewers, the audience for day three of the 2008 convention was still significantly larger (up by a third to 24 million viewers).

On Wednesday, August 27, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with all eight networks noted above airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11pm EST.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in MarketWatch, The New York Times’ “TV Decoder” blog, and Variety.

Clinton, Dems See Ratings Boost On DNC Day 2

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:29:47 +0000

Almost 26 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention — a 16% increase from 22.3 million viewers on the opening night of the convention.

Tuesday night’s speeches, which featured Senator Hillary Clinton’s much anticipated keynote address, continued to draw a large proportion of African Americans (12.7% of all African American viewers tuned in).

Viewers age 55 and older also continued to dominate Tuesday night’s TV audience, with 20% of all Americans in that age group watching the convention coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.

	RATING	NUMBER
All Households	17.8	20,066,000
Persons 2+	9.0	25,974,000
Persons 12-17	1.9	439,000
Persons 18-34	4.7	3,110,000
Persons 18-49	6.6	8,646,000
Persons 55+	20.0	13,829,000
African American Persons 2+ *	12.7	4,592,000
Hispanic Persons 2+ *	3.2	1,350,000
White Persons 2+ *	9.0	19,622,000
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 26, 2008)
Figures are the sum of the networks during the common hour of coverage. Included networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
*Ratings for African American, Hispanic and White viewers are expressed as a percent of those specific universe estimates.

In comparison to day two of the 2004 convention, which drew 5.9 million viewers, the audience for day two of the 2008 convention was significantly larger (26 million viewers). In 2004, cable networks provided the only TV coverage of the convention.

On Tuesday, August 26, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with all eight networks noted above airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11:15pm EST.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Nation, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News, and Variety.

Dems’ First Night Is Big Draw For African Americans

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:37:14 +0000

More than 22 million people — and 17 million U.S. households — watched the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention on Monday, August 25.

A large percentage of African American households (24%) tuned in for the night’s speeches, which included a keynote address by Michelle Obama.

Among White households in the U.S., 14.6% watched the convention Monday night, while just 7.3% of Hispanic households tuned in.

Viewers age 55 and older also dominated the TV audience Monday night – 16.6% of all Americans in that age group watched the first night of convention coverage broadcast live during primetime on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.

	RATING	NUMBER OF
All Households *	15.1	17,111,710
Persons 2+ *	7.8	22,296,685
Persons 12-17	1.7	417,496
Persons 18-34	4.6	3,156,100
Persons 18-49	5.9	7,678,484
Persons 55+	16.6	10,079,978
African American Households **	24	3,282,817
Hispanic Households **	7.3	869,029
White Households **	14.6	12,751,698
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 25, 2008)
*Combined figures are the sum of the networks during the common hour of coverage. Included networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
**Ratings for African American, Hispanic and White households are expressed as a percent of those specific universe estimates.

Convention coverage varied by network; all eight networks aired live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11pm EST.

View comparable TV ratings for Day 1 of the 2004 Democratic National Convention (Monday, July 26, 2004).

Read the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Nielsen’s findings.