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.

ESPN’s Biggest Fans Follow Sports Via TV And The Web

admin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:27:35 +0000

ESPN enthusiasts like their sports — and the more they watch sports, the more ways they follow it.

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.

Nielsen Wire » ESPN

In November, Sports Websites Continue Audience Surge

ESPN’s Biggest Fans Follow Sports Via TV And The Web