Nielsen Wire » CBS Sports

NCAA Tourney Gives Sports Sites Major March Madness Bounce

Nielsen Wire — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:54:37 +0000

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 Sports Video Viewing Usage
Statistic	Mar-09	M-O-M
Unique Viewer	3,274,000	287%
Total Streams	38,172,000	1214%
Time Spent Viewing (min)	381,882,000	4465%
Source: Nielsen Online

Nielsen’s Tom Ziangas On NCAA Tournament Advertising

Nielsen Press — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:15:28 +0000

Now that the NCAA Tournament has tipped off, senior vice president for Nielsen Sports Tom Ziangas talks about how important March Madness is to the CBS brand as well as the basketball tournament’s appeal to advertisers.

“The one thing you think about as far as the NCAA tournament is it’s synonymous with CBS,” said Ziangas. “I think advertisers understand that. That’s why you have people like Coke and AT&T – and even GM is actually coming back to the tournament when they pulled out of the Super Bowl. Having that cache as far as that association of the tournament to the network and bringing in that great male 18+ demographic is something that very few advertisers see, and that’s why they jump on board with the NCAA tournament.”

Watch the video for more from Tom Ziangas about advertising and the NCAA Tournament.

In November, Sports Websites Continue Audience Surge

admin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:38:41 +0000

More than 78 million Americans visited sports websites in November, a 5% increase over the same month last year.

Yahoo! Sports was the top sports site, drawing nearly 23 million unique visitors last month – a 2% jump from a year ago. In November, the average Yahoo! Sports user spent 20% more time on the site, compared to last year.

ESPN.com placed second in Nielsen’s ranking, but showed the greatest increase in unique visitors (+12%). ESPN’s users also logged on for 20% more sessions last month than in November 2007.

NFL Internet Network, FOX Sports on MSN, and CBS Sports rounded out the top five.

Top 5 U.S. Sports Websites: November 2008

Rank	Website	Unique Visitors	% Change Vs. November 2007
1	Yahoo! Sports	22,788,000	2%
2	ESPN	22,198,000	12%
3	NFL Internet Network	14,072,000	0%
4	FOX Sports on MSN	13,766,000	-10%
5	CBS Sports	12,939,000	-7%
	All U.S. Sports Websites	78,499,000	5%
Source: The Nielsen Company (November 2007 and November 2008).

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in USA Today.

Web Traffic To U.S. Sports Sites Grew in August

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:05:07 +0000

Workplace traffic to U.S.-based sports websites was up by 26% in August, compared with traffic to online sports destinations in August 2007, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.

The Beijing Olympics and the start of fall football season may have had something to do with the spike in traffic, Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted.

“With broad interest in the Olympics, and the ramp up of the college and professional football seasons, August was a busy month for online sports fans,” Gibs said. “The Web offered 24/7 access to news, results and video, and fans demonstrated a healthy appetite for information about their favorite athletes and teams.”

Overall, unique traffic to sports sites from workplaces grew from 33.4 million unique visitors in August 2007 to 42.3 million this August.

Working women made up a significant portion of that traffic, according to Nielsen. The number of female unique visitors who visited sports-related websites from work in August grew by 37% — from 12 million in August 2007 to 16.4 million this August. In comparison, sports sites drew 25.8 million male unique visitors this August — up by just 21% from 21.4 million visitors in August 2007.

Yahoo! Sports was the most popular online sports destination, attracting 18.7 million unique visitors at workplaces in August — a 112% increase over traffic to the site last August. ESPN and FOX Sports on MSN rounded out the top three, with 11.9 million and 7.7 million unique visitors, respectively, according to Nielsen.

NBC’s custom website, NBC Olympics, also attracted significant workplace traffic in August, drawing 13.8 million unique visitors — or 20% of the active at work Web population.

Among the top ten sites, Fantasy Sports Ventures Network — up 285% over August 2007 — showed the largest growth in unique workplace visitors.

Website	Unique Audience: August 2007 (in 000s)	Unique Audience: August 2008 (in 000s)	% Change
Yahoo! Sports	8,820	18,727	112%
ESPN	10,314	11,936	16%
FOX Sports on MSN	6,824	7,714	13%
SI Digital Sites	3,913	6,490	66%
CBS Sports	5,092	5,708	12%
NFL Internet Network	4,630	5,692	23%
MLB.com	5,521	5,486	-1%
AOL Sports	3,905	3,993	2%
Fantasy Sports Ventures Network	1,019	3,926	285%
Beijing2008.cn	N/A	3,026	N/A
Sports Category	33,405	42,252	26%
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 1, 2008 – August 31, 2008).

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Vancouver Sun.