Changes are afoot, however, as consumers seek out the entertainment option that makes the most sense for them. The number of homes subscribing to wired cable has decreased 4.1 percent in the past year at the same time that telephone company-provided and satellite TV have seen increases of 21.1 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Broadcast-Only/Broadband Homes in Focus
Though less than 5 percent of TV households, homes with broadband Internet and free, broadcast TV are on the rise—growing 22.8 percent over last year. These households are also found to exhibit interesting video behaviors: they stream video twice as much as the general population and watch half as much TV.

Whether they’re cord-cutters or former broadcast-only homes that upgraded to Internet service, these homes represent a very small but growing group of U.S. consumers. Interestingly, roughly the same percentage of consumers in broadcast-only/broadband homes watch traditional TV, stream or use the Internet as in all cross-platform homes; the difference between these groups falls to time spent on these activities. Even broadcast-only/broadband homes spend the majority of their video time watching traditional TV: 122.6 minutes, compared to 11.2 for streaming on average each day.

The social media population overall, skews slightly higher among females (55%), than males (45%). However, when comparing this demographic split to that of the population on social media sites talking about TV, this split reverses skewing higher among males (55%), than females (45%). There are several interesting demographic shifts when comparing general social media users and the portion of the population talking about TV specifically on social media. Those under age 18 account for 34 percent of the overall social media population, yet make up only 12 percent of the population on social media sites talking about TV. The opposite shift happens when focusing on the 25 – 34 year-old demographic. This age break comprises 17 percent of the overall social media population, but jumps to 29 percent of the makeup of the population on sites talking about TV. Within these age groups it’s interesting to note that, the difference in percentages across ethnic backgrounds remains relatively unchanged for African Americans, Asian, Hispanic and Whites.

When are consumers discussing TV?
TV buzz closely mimics traditional ratings patterns as well as a show’s yearly cycle.

Buzz is highest on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday coinciding with days when a lot of major shows air. TV buzz drops off on the weekend and increases once again as the middle of the week approaches.

Research shows that TV buzz nears its high during September, right before a show premieres and during its initial month. Conversations taper off slightly over the ensuing months, but increase again in January with the introduction of new and returning shows. TV buzz then seems to peak during April and May as consumers respond to show finales, and then dips again during the summer.

What are consumers discussing?

Consumers use social media to talk about a number of key TV-related topics such as winning (14%), voting (6%) and judging (6%), which highlight the appeal of and engagement consumers have with reality-based TV. Top genres fueling the most buzz are funny (10%), romance (8%) and drama (6%). Entertaining (11%), physical attractiveness (9%), fans (9%) and writers/creators (6%) round out the rest of top topics driving consumer discussion across social media.

For more on TV viewers getting social, download research and watch video from Nielsen’s Advertising Week presentations.

In today’s fragmented media landscape, where entertainment programming and content is accessible across all digital platforms, advertisers need to plan and allocate ad budgets as efficiently as possible. For advertisers, this means utilizing advanced media analytics to plan campaigns and ensure the right message gets to the right people. At Nielsen’s Consumer 360 client event in Orlando Florida, Paul Swiontkowski and Kim Stanford from Microsoft shared how they efficiently delivered television ads to the viewers most likely to respond to Microsoft’s message.

In a recent effort to drive Internet users to Bing, Microsoft sought to reach their heaviest web search engine users—the 20 percent of Americans who perform approximately 80 percent of all online searches. Using insights from Nielsen’s cross-platform panel, which measures both TV and Internet use from a single-source sample, Microsoft identified the TV networks, programs, and dayparts most watched. By shifting advertising campaign dollars, Microsoft improved the efficiency of their ad buy by 25 percent—effectively reaching the right consumers with the right message.

“You need to capitalize on the opportunity to optimize campaign performance by focusing on the consumer and not the marketing channel,” said Swiontkowski. “Know how you are going to target your best customers.” TV buying suffers from the multiplicity syndrome: who we want to message, who we think we want to message and who we end up messaging.

In the end, Bing reached about 70 percent of U.S. audience, missing about 20 percent of their target. “The people we thought we were reaching were actually not the heavy-searcher segment and we spent 60 percent of our budget reaching people outside our target,” commented Swiontkowski. In order to get to a more precise reading and better reach the core target, Microsoft relied on integrated TV /Internet research to pinpoint the programs that heavy searchers watched.

“Only about 10 years ago did the Internet become an integral part of the marketing mix,” said Kim Stanford. “Companies are really harnessing the value that digital can play. And while TV is still an important part of the mix, it is evolving.”

Stanford discussed two extreme views of digital:

1. Digital extends reach.  Get the word out.
2. Digital extends frequency to persuade. Deliver the message by leveraging frequency.

The key to both strategies is controlling frequency. The power of combined TV/Internet is so much greater than each individually. So how do you find the perfect sweet spot? Know what the strategy is and what the frequency level needs to be.

It is critical to understand what you are getting for each media dollar spent. “Be clear on how the mediums are going to work for you and continuously measure it throughout,” said Stanford. “We know the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole.” The value you bring to the integration is critical. It is still not a perfect world, but we are getting to a more holistic view.

SUMMARY: This article illustrates how a multi-platform media brand like CNN is using fusion data to create integrated advertising opportunities across its platforms by quantifying each platform’s total and incremental reach on top of their TV audience for the news category.

Divided attention
Technological advances are helping to form the dynamics between consumers and media companies. The menu of media platforms has grown to include platforms like the Internet, mobile, and social media. These new media vehicles are not replacing old media; rather, they are dividing consumers’ attention among multiple media touch points and driving media companies to actively develop content and advertising strategies that optimize these shifts in behaviors. While most media companies are striving for cross-platform success from both TV and the Internet, only a handful of networks get incremental lift from their online properties today, which is vital to increasing overall market share.

Tracking your cross-platform footprint
The industry finally has data to better capture where there is incremental lift—the data is based on actual behavior, not self-reported survey usage. Through a statistical matching process, Nielsen’s TV/Internet fusion links television audience information from the National People Meter Panel with Internet usage from the Nielsen Online NetView Panel.

The fusion analysis allows media companies to evaluate their media genre/category and uncover how that company’s TV and Internet components affect their audience interaction with their media brand.

News you can use
Focusing on the News genre media footprint, Nielsen’s analysis identified people who consumed News information via TV only, Internet only and both TV and Internet. News TV is made up of all News genre available from broadcast to cable. The News websites grouping consist of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC digital Networks, AOL News and Yahoo News.

In the month analyzed, approximately 143 million people consumed News information through the identified media sources as follows:

• 81 million accessed news on TV only
• 60 million accessed news on both TV and online
• 1.5 million accessed news online only

The cross-platform audience portion—classified by CNN as “Integrators”—is a highly desirable audience not only because of the size, but also due to their time spent with the category. These category Integrators spent nearly 12 hours each month consuming news content on TV and online — nearly 30% more than people who only consume news on TV.

Who are the news media integrators?
There exists the ongoing debate about whether emerging media cannibalize or complete existing media, and this new fusion data provides insight to the relationship between the various media.

A key finding from the study revealed that consuming news on multiple platforms is not a zero-sum game. The average number of days each network is viewed, and the number of days each network website is visited, is greater among people who use both platforms than people who only view news on TV or people who only consume news online.

Having this integrated audience—one that accesses content on TV, online and via other platforms—has benefits both to the media company in terms of engagement and to the advertiser in terms of being able to use these important platforms within the halo that the media brand provides.

Among the three news brands identified, CNN has a distinct advantage over Fox News Channel and MSNBC in terms of the size of their integrated audience and the engagement, or number of minutes consumed on TV and online.

Each day, CNN Integrators consume 154 million minutes of the CNN brand on TV and online—nearly double the amount of minutes consumed to Fox News among Fox News Integrators, and 50% more than the amount of minutes consumed to MSNBC among MSNBC Integrators.

Actionable results
By examining the cross-platform footprint, media companies can better develop and cross-promote their content on TV and online optimizing their brand reach to this growing Integrator segment. Regardless of the category, this analysis serves as a tool for media companies to: 1) maintain existing brand loyal Integrators, 2) understand which platform provides the most growth potential from multi-platform consumers, and 3) help to develop strategies to transition Integrators who are less brand loyal to one of their brand platforms.

What’s driving the wild success of EA Sports’ star product? 

A marketing vision that combines a deep understanding of the game’s core fan base with an innovative, “three-screen” strategy that leverages TV, online, and mobile phone outlets for the game, Matt Foran of Nielsen Sports, writes in the November issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Thanks to websites like Xbox Live, “Madden” gamers can head online to play with friends and anonymous fans across the country — making the game a communal experience, Foran notes.

“Madden” is also one of the top ten mobile game downloads: 142,000 mobile users downloaded the game in July 2008, paying an average of $4.34 for the game, according to Nielsen’s latest Mobile Games Report. 

Not surprisingly, the mobile version of “Madden NFL 2008″ skews heavily male.  In Q2 2008, 78% of the game’s downloaders were male.  However, Foran notes, the game also skews more middle age than the overall mobile gaming population: 44% of “Madden NFL ‘08″ downloaders were between the ages of 45 and 64.  In comparison, just 21% of the overall mobile gaming audience falls within that age group.

And because video gamers are avid football fans (in 2008, NFL games have drawn 44% higher TV ratings among households with video game consoles than those without, according to Nielsen), EA Sports expanded the “Madden” franchise into TV. 

The company partnered with ESPN to create “Madden Nation,” a “Survivor”-esque reality show airing on ESPN2, Foran notes.  The show, which draws an average of 300,000 viewers each week, has come up with innovative ways to integrate cross promotions of NFL teams and sports apparel.

“Madden” has also found success with other ESPN programs, such as “Sunday Countdown” and “Monday Night Countdown,” Foran notes.  The programs regularly feature “EA Sports Virtual Playbook” segments, in which ESPN analysts diagram the plays using the “Madden” video game with super imposed graphics. 

The takeaway for marketers?

Follow the “Madden” marketing team’s lead: a strong presence across multiple media platforms and a commitment to authenticity are essential for reaching increasingly empowered 21st Century consumers.

Read the full article.

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

Sports fans who watched both ESPN and used ESPN.com spent 27% more time watching ESPN TV than TV-only users — and 50% more time using ESPN.com than Internet-only viewers, according to a recent study of ESPN fans’ cross-platform media consumption habits by Nielsen Connections.

Pete Doe, Managing Director, Nielsen Connections, and Glenn Enoch, Vice President, Audience Research, ESPN, reported the findings of that research in the September issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Overall, 123 million people accessed ESPN on TV and another 21 million visited ESPN.com in March 2008, according to Nielsen.  Among households with either TV or Internet access, 84% of users who accessed ESPN content via TV, 10% used both Internet and TV, and 6% used ESPN.com exclusively, Nielsen found. 

Nielsen’s custom research for ESPN used TV/Internet data fusion techniques, paired with Nielsen’s single-source Convergence Panel, to track how ESPN fans access the network’s offerings via TV and the Web. 

Read the full article.

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

Learn more about how Nielsen tracks media consumption across the three screens: TV, Internet, and Mobile.