ABC, CBS, and NBC aired almost three times more TV advertising during the Democratic National Convention than during the Republican National Convention, Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported Friday.
The three networks aired more than 36 minutes of commercials, including promotional announcements and public service announcements, during the DNC — compared with just 13 minutes of commercials during the GOP convention, according to Nielsen.
Of the three networks, CBS aired the most advertising during both conventions.

Network
# of Commercial Minutes
Democratic Convention
(mm:ss)
# of Commercial Minutes
Republican Convention
(mm:ss)

ABC
9:36
4:48

CBS
15:48
5:30

NBC
11:00
2:54

Total
36:24
13:12

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 25 – 28, 2008 and September 2 …

It’s one of the few points not up for debate this election season: TV coverage of the typically uneventful U.S. political conventions drew record-breaking audiences. 
Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. households (64.5%) — 120.1 million people age two or older — watched at least one of the 2008 political conventions, according to a new analysis released Thursday by Nielsen. 
Viewership levels for the Democratic and Republican conventions were essentially even, with about half of all U.S. households watching each.  Overall, 15% of all homes tuned in to the Republican National Convention only, while 15.7% …

Vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin may be in the headlines, but the chatter in the blogosphere remains focused on the presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, according to Nielsen Online.
Online Buzz
An analysis by Nielsen of the online discussions around more than 30 speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions showed Obama leading McCain, followed by Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton.  Vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, rounded out the top five most buzzworthy politicians.

Rank
Speaker
Index

1
Barack Obama
100

2
John McCain
97

3
Sarah Palin
80

4
Hillary Clinton
33

5
Joe Biden
26

6
George W. Bush
12

7
Michelle Obama
12

8
Bill Clinton
11

9
Cindy McCain
5

10
Ted Kennedy
5

11
Nancy Pelosi
4

12
Mitt Romney
4

13
Al Gore
4

14
Joe Lieberman
4

15
Rudy Giuliani
3

16
Fred Thompson
3

17
Mike …

ABC’s primetime coverage of the final day of the Democratic National Convention led in viewership drawing an average audience of roughly 6.6 million viewers. The event featured the widely viewed acceptance speech by Sen. Barack Obama.
Convention coverage from NBC and CBS also made their way into the top 10.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
VOTE2008:DEM NAT CONV-THU(S)-08/28/2008
ABC
6,584,000

2
DECISION ‘08 DEM CONV THU(S)-08/28/2008
NBC
6,100,000

3
BIG BROTHER 10-THU
CBS
5,969,000

4
CSI
CBS
5,297,000

5
MOMENT OF TRUTH 8/28-9P(S)-08/28/2008
FOX
5,179,000

6
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS THU
UNI
5,127,000

7
CAMPAIGN 2008-DEM CONV-TH(S)-08/28/2008
CBS
4,722,000

8
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE THU
UNI
4,685,000

9
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
4,008,000

10
MOMENT OF TRUTH 8/28-8P(S)-08/28/2008
FOX
3,690,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 28, 2008)

Overall, NBC won the night with an average audience …

The Barack Obama Campaign generated significant buzz this weekend by announcing Senator Obama’s Vice Presidential selection via SMS text-message. Nielsen estimates that 2.9 million U.S. mobile subscribers received a text message from the Obama campaign over the weekend.
The Vice Presidential message (sent in the late hours of Friday night) is, by many accounts, the single largest mobile marketing event ever in the U.S.
“From a mobile perspective, it makes sense that the campaign chose to use text-messages,” Nic Covey, Director of Insights, Nielsen Mobile, noted. “Today, 116 million U.S. mobile subscribers (52 …

With the national political conventions starting next week, pundits and the general public, alike, are scrutinizing Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaign strategies.
On Thursday, Nielsen joined the fray, releasing an analysis of the candidates’ online presence and buzz, their advertising campaigns, and TV viewership for past conventions. 
Online Audience and Videos Viewed
BarackObama.com’s unique audience was twice as large as JohnMcCain.com’s in both June and July 2008.  However, in July, the number of video streams on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled, possibly due to press coverage around Senator John McCain’s ad that compared …