The Award Show season is in full swing, and if history runs true to form this Sunday’s telecast of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be one of most-viewed programs of the year.

More Americans are getting into the habit of going online while watching television, with 10% or more of viewers visiting social networks, searching the web and browsing content during major TV events.

Last night’s Academy Awards which saw “The Hurt Locker” prevail over 3D blockbuster Avatar for both best picture and best director reflected a growing trend of online Oscar chatter leading up to the awards.

With the Academy Awards on March 7, fans online are increasingly discussing the nominees for best picture (a category that has expanded to include 10 films this year) and the best actor/actress awards.

2008 advertising expenditures for this year’s Best Film nominees:

RANK
FILM
EXPENDITURES (millions)

1
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
$31.0

2
Milk
$11.3

3
Frost/Nixon
$11.3

4
Slumdog Millionaire
$6.1

5
The Reader
$4.6

source: The Nielsen Company 2009NOTE: Figures do not include Internet or Outdoor ad expenditures

According to Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics Service, Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet have garnered the most buzz so far compared with other nominees in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories with 47% and 46% of buzz volume, respectively.  Brad Pitt has more than double the amount of pre-show buzz compared with Mickey Rourke (22%), who follows Pitt in the buzz ranking, and nearly triples buzz volume compared to Sean Penn (17%).  Pre-show buzz seems to be a tighter race among the Best Actress nominees as Angelina Jolie slightly trails Winslet …

Do Academy Award nominations impact the distribution and ticket sales of nominated movies? Nielsen EDI compared the number of theaters showing each movie and ticket sales before and after the nominations were announced on January 22 and found significant increases in most cases.
With the exception of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, each of the Best Film nominees saw triple-digit percentage increases in theater count after they were nominated. The increased distribution of these films also led to box office sales increases anywhere from 18% to 72% in the …

Nielsen’s list of the most-watched Oscar broadcasts since 1974:

RANK
DATE
NETWORK
BEST FILM
# OF VIEWERS P2+(MILLIONS)

1
3/23/1998
ABC
Titanic
55.2

2
4/11/1983
ABC
Gandhi
53.2

3
4/14/1980
ABC
Kramer vs. Kramer
49.0

4
4/3/1978
ABC
Annie Hall
48.5

5
3/27/1995
ABC
Forrest Gump
48.3

6
4/8/1975
NBC
GodfatherPart II
48.1

7
3/29/1976
ABC
One… Cuckoo’s Nest
46.8

8
3/26/2000
ABC
American Beauty
46.3

9
4/9/1979
ABC
Deer Hunter
46.3

10
3/29/1982
ABC
Chariots of Fire
46.2

source: The Nielsen Company (2009)

Movie buzz is up following the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and the nominations for the Academy Awards, but in recent years viewership for many award shows (including the Oscars) has actually been declining. Is it the host? The length of the broadcast? Or does it have something to do with the movies themselves?
According to a recent study by Nielsen Preview, viewership of the Academy Awards is directly impacted by the box office draw of the best picture nominees and the popularity of the host.
During the 2004 Academy Awards (hosted by …