The Internet played an important role in the 2008 election campaign, so it’s no surprise that on Election Day, people used multiple news sources to follow results.  By combining television and Internet samples through a process known as fusion, Nielsen provides new data showing how the two media worked together to meet the demand for election news updates.

A total of 163.6 million adults sought election coverage from either television or the Internet — or both. This shows the unduplicated or cumulative audience that used one or the other medium for at least one minute.

158.3 million watched Election Day coverage on television. Of those, 134.8 million only watched TV coverage.

28.8 million used the Internet to get Election Day coverage from major news websites. Of those, 5.2 million only used the Internet for election coverage.

23.6 million got Election Day coverage from both TV and the Internet. Of these, 48% of these accessed online Election Day coverage only while at work; 42% got their online coverage only at home; and 10% checked online coverage both at home and at work.

Demographic Breakdown
From an overall reach perspective, adults aged 50+ were more likely than younger adults to seek Election Day news from TV or Internet — 80% of these adults were reached by one or the other medium, compared to 60% for 18-34s and 76% for 35-49s.

The demographic difference between the TV audience and the online audience wasn’t “younger” versus “older” — but rather, “middle-aged” versus “older.”

Younger adults between the ages of 18-34 made up about a quarter of the audience for both television and the Internet, but from there online coverage skewed younger than television:

-Adults 18-34 were 24.8% of the TV audience and 24.4% of the online audience.

-Adults 35-49 made up 40.7% of the online audience, but only 29.5% of the TV audience.

-Adults over the age of 50 made up 46% of the TV audience and accounted for 35% of the Internet users.

In addition, there are decided differences in demographic composition, based on whether people accessed election coverage online only, on TV only, or both on TV and online:

-Internet Only Users were the youngest: 34.5% were aged 18-34, compared to 34.0% for 35-49 and 31.5% for 50+.

-TV Only Users were the oldest: 25.3% were aged 18-34, 27.3% were aged 35-49, 47.4% were 50+.

-People who accessed Election coverage on both TV and online skewed 35-49: 22.2% were aged 18-34, 42.2% were 35-49, 35.6% were 50+.

Convergence Panel Results
A new Nielsen sample tracks both Internet and television usage with a single sample, making it possible to see how people used the two media simultaneously to check Election Day results.  This “convergence panel” shows that while simultaneous use of TV and Internet for Election Day coverage was limited, TV and online news outlets drew larger than average audiences:

-Only 1% of TV viewers on Election Night were simultaneously searching news websites — three times greater than the prior Tuesday night.

-On the other hand, 25.5% of news website visitors on Election Night were also watching TV election coverage — 2.5 times greater than the normal simultaneous traffic.

President-elect Barack Obama placed one-and-a-half times as many spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 to 11/08), and almost twice as many ads dating back to the beginning of January when the primaries were just heating up.

The local numbers show a much bigger discrepancy than those for national cable and network buys. Sen. McCain kept pace w/ President-elect Obama in those categories, with Obama edging out his rival by just 136 ad buys in the cable and network combined, dating back to January.

Other notable campaign facts from Nielsen’s research

• Obama’s ads were on the airwaves over twice as much as McCain’s in the final month before the election (210,245 vs. 97,023 ad buys).
• McCain took early advantage of Obama’s long primary battle with Hillary Clinton, which ended on June 3rd. McCain bought over three and a half times more spot TV ads than Obama in June (26,594 to 7,251), the only month that McCain beat his opponent in that category.
• McCain made a major push with national buys in September, out placing Obama 10 to 1 in cable and network ad buys.
• The two candidates alone combined for almost 850,000 total ad buys dating back to January.

Complete Ad Spends: Jan-Nov 2008

Sports metaphors in politics and the intermingling of the two genres are nothing new: retired athletes fill the halls of congress, Presidents throw out first pitches, and Championship teams visit the White House. However, President-elect Barack Obama utilized Sports Programming like no candidate in history. His campaign spent an estimated $5 million on commercials during the Olympics (it also bears mentioning that Chicago’s chance of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics received a huge boost on Tuesday Night).

Dating back to the beginning of this year, there have been 7,416 “Obama for President” commercial units in live sporting events, and 1,081 during the NFL season alone, as the Presidential race wound down. There was the “Obama Infomercial” that delayed the World Series game between the Phillies and Rays by a few minutes. According to Nielsen Media Research, 33.7% of those Obama Infomercial viewers also tuned in to watch the Phillies clinch their first Championship since 1980. [more on Obama and McCain's advertising]

Sports remains one of the last bastions of live television, giving politicians a better chance their 30-second spots aren’t bypassed in a DVR World. The huge ratings that sporting events receive also provide a platform to speak to a wide ranging constituency of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Professional leagues and sports networks welcome the election year as a new source of advertising dollars, even more critical in an economic downturn.

But the Obama campaign did more than just break out their checkbook for commercial time. A relative newcomer to many Americans back in December 2006, then Senator Obama introduced his hometown Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. That night, 11.1 million viewers watched as Obama declared “I’d like to put all the doubts to rest and announce… to all of America… that I am ready… for the Bears to go all the way!” He would later announce his political plans to go all the way in Springfield in February 2007.

It is also a prerequisite for Presidential candidates to display an athletic ability and passion for fitness and Obama had this base covered as well. In an April interview with Bryant Gumbel on HBO’s Real Sports, Obama explained his love of basketball, and the lessons it has taught him about sacrifice and team work. That episode of Real Sports was replayed on HBO 15 times for a total of 1.7 million viewers, and the segment received an additional 159,000 views on YouTube. After a long line of Presidents who are avid golfers, Obama’s frequent pickup basketball games will be one of many signs that we may have a new type of President in the making.

On Monday Night, and his last chance to address the nation before the polls opened on Tuesday, Obama (along with Senator McCain) returned to Monday Night Football, for an interview at halftime of the Steelers-Redskins game. The game was watched by 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, the second most viewed cable event of the year. Obama again utilized his change mantra, this time to champion a cause close to many sports fans, the need for a college football playoff system. We can only hope.

Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day.  Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors.

Page views and time-per-person at current events and news websites also increased 103% and 61%, respectively, on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.

Check out historical unique audience data from Election Day 2004.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaweek, Media Life magazine, and Direct News.

Live news coverage was carried on both broadcast and cable networks, including Spanish-language networks: ABC, CBS, FOX Broadcast, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, and TV One.

Nielsen’s audience estimates include primetime coverage, from 8pm to 11pm, in the Eastern and Central Time Zones and live in Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

Audience estimates for the 8pm to 12:30am time frame, which featured Sen. McCain’s concession speech and President-Elect Obama’s speech in Chicago, are also included below.

In 2004, almost 59.2 million viewers tuned in between 8pm and 11pm to watch Election Night TV coverage, as President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry to win re-election.

On Election Night in 2000, almost 61.6 million viewers (excluding viewers of Spanish language networks) watched primetime TV coverage of President Bush and Former Vice President Al Gore’s embattled election contest.

Nielsen’s broadcast audience numbers include a combination of national and local news coverage.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Mediaweek, and Media Life magazine.

NBC’s 8pm to 11:30pm coverage of the voting results claimed second place, and ABC’s 8pm to 9pm Election Night coverage rounded out the top three.

Election returns coverage on CBS, FOX, and Univision dominated the rest of the top ten.

Overall, ABC won the night with an average audience of just over 13.2 million viewers, while NBC took second place with almost 12.5 million average viewers. CBS and FOX claimed third and fourth places with roughly 7.4 million and 4.7 million average viewers, respectively. Univision and the CW followed in fifth and sixth places with average audiences of roughly 4 million and 2.4 million average viewers, respectively.

In the wake of winning the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Obama was mentioned in almost 20% of all blog discussions, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

In comparison, John McCain was referenced by just 6.3% of all blog entries posted on November 5, according to Nielsen.

On Sunday, Nov. 2, McCain ran just 708 TV ad units in those seven states — 48% fewer than the 1,463 ad units Obama ran that day. 

But on Monday, Nov. 3, Obama’s lead in these key battleground states shrank to 79% — or a margin of 1,510 ad units, after McCain’s campaign increased the number of TV ad units it ran in those states by 168%, to 1,900 units.

In comparison, Obama’s campaign ran 3,410 ad units in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia on Monday — a 133% increase from Sunday.

Both candidates continued to focus the bulk of their advertising on Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  On Monday, McCain ran 75% of his 1,900 ads (1,424 units) in those three states, while Obama ran 67% of his 3,410 ads (2,292 units) there.

Advertising in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia by both McCain (1,912 units) and Obama (4,119 units) peaked on Friday, Oct. 17 (6,031 combined ad units) — just two days after their final presidential debate.

In comparison, on Monday – the last day before the election – the candidates placed a combined total of 5,310 ads, falling short of their Oct. 17 combined advertising peak by 13.5%. 

For his part, McCain came within 12 ad units (6%) of his Oct. 17 advertising peak on Monday, while Obama remained 709 units (21%) shy of his highest ad unit level.

Overall, between Oct. 6 and Nov. 3, Obama placed 133% more ad units (83,903 vs. 36,070) than McCain in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Nielsen’s ad unit data shows preliminary commercial occurrences and may fluctuate from day to day, as data is updated.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by Bloomberg and in The Boston Globe and the Houston Chronicle.

Despite trailing Obama in terms of the total number of TV ad units placed, McCain showed a much larger percentage increase in TV advertising from the previous weekend (Friday October 24 thru Sunday, October 26) to this past weekend (Friday, October 31 thru Sunday, November 2).  

McCain bumped his TV ad units up by 76% overall in the seven battleground states Nielsen tracked, while Obama increased his advertising in those states by just 3% over the previous weekend.

Between October 6 and November 2, Obama placed 135% more ad units (80,504 vs. 34,179) than McCain in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

To date, both McCain and Obama have advertised most heavily in Florida.  Obama ran 24,834 ads in the state between October 6 and November 2, outpacing McCain’s 8,599 ads by almost 189%.

Nielsen’s ad unit data shows preliminary commercial occurrences and may fluctuate from day to day, as data is updated.

Stay tuned on NielsenWire for daily political ad updates from the swing states.