Population trends have clear implications for those involved in the media and advertising industries. There are now more than 114 million U.S. TV households, with immigration continuing to play a major role in population growth. U.S. Census estimates predict that by the year 2050 more than half of the U.S.
population will be non-white.
Nielsen’s “Ethnic Trends In Media,” is a comprehensive report profiling African-American, Asian, Hispanic and White households in the U.S.  This report examines household characteristics, television usage, timeshifted viewing and popular programming genres for each group.
Key findings include:

Household …

Consumers are still investing in home entertainment despite cutting back in other areas, according to Nielsen’s SportsQuestTM Survey.  The telephone survey, conducted among 1,865 respondents in November and December 2008, asked about a number of questions with respect to changes in their spending habits and how those changes may have affected how they viewed TV-related spending such as cable, direct satellite, video on demand/pay-per-view and DVD purchases and rentals.
The difficult economic conditions have forced most Americans to think about how they spend their money, so it is little surprise that …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
18,883,000

2
NCIS
CBS
17,470,000

3
60 MINUTES
CBS
16,648,000

4
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
ABC
15,685,000

5
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
15,491,000

6
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
15,484,000

7
CSI: NY
CBS
14,878,000

8
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
14,780,000

9
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
14,345,000

10
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
14,207,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 29, 2008 – October 5, 2008).

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
21,338,000

2
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
ABC
18,684,000

3
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
18,469,000

4
DANCING W/STARS SP-9/23(S)
ABC
18,302,000

5
NCIS
CBS
18,026,000

6
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
17,340,000

7
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
17,233,000

8
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
17,007,000

9
DANCING W/STARS RESULT SP(S)
ABC
15,867,000

10
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
15,603,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 22, 2008 – September, 28 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
22,230,000

2
HOUSE
FOX
14,773,000

3
60 MINUTES
CBS
14,594,000

4
SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK
NBC
14,024,000

5
FRINGE
FOX
13,272,000

6
PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS(S)
ABC
12,339,000

7
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
12,235,000

8
FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3
NBC
10,924,000

9
CSI
CBS
10,190,000

10
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 9/18(S)
NBC
10,032,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 15, 2008 – September 21, 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
17,834,000

2
SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK
NBC
13,559,000

3
60 MINUTES
CBS
12,540,000

4
SAT NIGHT FOOTBALL
ABC
11,939,000

5
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
11,704,000

6
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT
NBC
11,612,000

7
FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3
NBC
10,849,000

8
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 9/11(S)
NBC
9,833,000

9
DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON
NBC
9,651,000

10
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
9,177,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 8, 2008 – September 14, 2008)

Product placements on primetime broadcast and cable TV programs fell by almost 15% on primetime programming during the first half of 2008, as compared with the same time period last year, Nielsen reported Monday.
Broadcast television placements grew by almost 12% between January and June of 2008, while placements on cable television declined by 20%.
Changes in program line-ups accounted for the growth of broadcast placements — and the decrease in cable placements. 

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
18,351,000

2
NBC NFL THURSDAY SPECIAL(S)
NBC
13,531,000

3
SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK
NBC
13,337,000

4
FOX NFL SUNDAY-PST GN-NAT
FOX
12,907,000

5
DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON
NBC
10,964,000

6
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT
NBC
10,772,000

7
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
10,249,000

8
60 MINUTES
CBS
10,075,000

9
FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3
NBC
10,026,000

10
BONES
FOX
9,739,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 1, 2008 – September 7, 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT
NBC
11,118,000

2
DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON
NBC
10,999,000

3
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
10,344,000

4
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
9,030,000

5
60 MINUTES
CBS
8,030,000

6
NCIS
CBS
7,453,000

7
AMERICA’S TOUGHEST JOBS
NBC
7,298,000

8
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
6,930,000

9
HOUSE
FOX
6,808,000

10
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
6,631,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 25, 2008 – August 31, 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
SUM OLYM CLOSE CEREM(S)
NBC
27,834,000

2
SUM OLYM TUE PRIME 2(S)
NBC
26,629,000

3
SUM OLYM MON PRIME 2(S)
NBC
26,374,000

4
SUM OLYM WED PRIME 2(S)
NBC
24,755,000

5
SUM OLYM THU PRIME 2(S)
NBC
22,438,000

6
BEIJING CLOSING PARTY(S)
NBC
20,577,000

7
SUM OLYM FRI PRIME 2(S)
NBC
17,876,000

8
SUM OLYM SAT PRIME 3(S)
NBC
16,756,000

9
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
8,162,000

10
NCIS
CBS
7,610,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 18, 2008 – August 24, 2008)