A total of 99.2 million U.S. viewers have watched at least six minutes of World Cup action through Tuesday. The figure already surpasses the 91.4 million viewers who watched at least some of the games throughout the entire 2006 World Cup.

“The audience reach measurement is a good indicator of how many viewers are at least curious enough to see what all the buzz is about,” said Stephen Master, VP of sports at Nielsen. “Even with the World Cup’s most crucial games still to come, a reach of 99.2 million viewers suggests that there’s a big American appetite for world class soccer.”

Miami Dominates Local Rankings

Viewers in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market are watching the World Cup more than any other market in the country. Through Tuesday, Miami has the highest ratings for both English language (3.6 HH rating) and Spanish language (5.2 HH rating) World Cup telecasts.

New York City has the second highest ratings for English language telecasts (3.3 HH rating), followed by Washington, DC (3.2 HH rating). San Diego, which was the top rated English language market in 2006, ranks fouth so far this year with a 3.1 average household rating.

After Miami, Los Angeles has the highest average rating for Spanish language broadcasts (4.1 HH rating). Houston (3.5), Las Vegas (2.6), and Dallas-Ft. Worth (2.4) round out the top five.

Greenville, SC and Greensboro, NC maintained their spots as the top DMAs for this year’s race, scoring 21.2 and 19.9 ratings, respectively. Dayton, OH surged to the #3 spot with an 18.0 rating.

 2009 DAYTONA 500: TOP-10 LOCAL DMA RATINGS

At its peak (5:48pm ET), the race scored a 10.5 HH rating, with 18.1 million viewers tuning in. According to Repucom International, which provides exclusive integration of Nielsen data in measuring brand exposure in sports telecasts, those 18.1 million viewers were exposed to the following brands within the next 30 seconds: AAA, Red Bull, Red Bull Cola, Toyota, Sprint, Sunoco, 3M, Fedex, Goodyear, Taco Bell, EA Sports, Dodge, and Chevrolet.

As a sport tied so directly to sponsorships and the struggling auto industry, NASCAR offered a steady dose of positive exposure for American car companies. According to Repucom, Chevrolet and Ford had the most brand exposures during FOX’s telecast, combining for 419 exposures and a total of almost 30 minutes. AT&T had the third-most exposure time at almost 14 minutes. More extraordinary, those 14 minutes were an accumulation of just 36 exposures – meaning AT&T enjoyed an impressive average of 23 seconds per exposure.

2009 DAYTONA 500: TOP-10 BRAND EXPOSURES

U.S. television viewers also increased by 1.3%, to a total of nearly 290 million people (age two and older), with older viewers (age 55+) showing the fastest growth rate (+2.7%).

The new figures, Nielsen’s TV Universe Estimate for the 2008-2009 TV season, will be reflected in Nielsen’s national TV ratings as of September 1, 2008. 

Nationally, in comparison to the total number of TV households, the number of Hispanic and Asian television households increased by 4.4% and 4.3%, respectively. African American TV households grew by 2.2% during the same time period.

Locally, the top 20 television markets held onto their 2007-2008 TV season ranks. Movement among lower-ranked markets reflected recent population growth in the Southern and Western United States — of the 58 markets that moved up in rank, more than half are in the Southeast or Mountain regions.

Local market estimates are projected to January 1, 2009 and will be used in metered market samples as of September 27, 2008.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Mediaweek and Media Daily News.