Advertisers during Super Bowl XLIII reached the largest audience of any Super Bowl game — the second most-viewed television event of all-time, according to Nielsen.  Ads for Bud Light Lime and GoDaddy.com were seen by 103.2 million viewers last Sunday.
According to Nielsen’s annual report on Super Bowl advertising and overall viewing, an average of 98.7 million U.S. viewers tuned in to the game.  Almost 152 million people watched the last six minutes of the game, giving it the largest reach by a TV event ever.
Other key findings include:

Total commercial airtime …

With all the anticipation surrounding Sunday’s big game, an analysis of national and local ratings from past Super Bowls provides insight into the viewership of this year’s matchup:

In terms of DMA’s (Designated Market Area), Phoenix is ranked 12th and Pittsburgh 23rd of the 56 metered markets. The 2006 Super Bowl featured a similar match-up with Seattle, ranked the 13th largest DMA, against Pittsburgh, then 22nd. That game received a 57.4 rating in Pittsburgh and 54.4 in Seattle (compared to 41.6 nationally).

From 1999-2008, the highest single-year metered market performance was delivered in Jacksonville …

Each week, Nielsen Sports analysts offer their take on the biggest sports media headlines.
This past weekend, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama faced some tough competition in Pennsylvania. 
With the Phillies playing in the World Series and college and pro football games on both Saturday and Sunday, there was no shortage of TV sports options for politics-weary Pennsylvanians, looking for a break from presidential campaigning.
The action started on Saturday in western Pennsylvania, as the Penn State Nittany Lions took on their Big 10 Rival, the Ohio State Buckeyes.  In nearby Pittsburgh, 20.8% of …

When it comes to entertainment consumption, all U.S. cities are not created equal.
Take Atlanta, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco – five of 21 cities that are home to some of the nation’s most voracious media consumers.  According to a study of entertainment consumption in 65 major U.S. cities, released Monday by Nielsen PreView, residents of these cities love opening weekend movie-going, rock concerts, reality TV, and newspapers.
In contrast, residents of Bakersfield (California), El Paso, Flint/Saginaw/Bay City (Michigan), Memphis, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, and San Antonio have one-track entertainment minds: …

In New England — according to a recent analysis from Scarborough Research, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron.
The study, which asked respondents in 81 U.S. cities to select the political party label that best describes how they see themselves – regardless of how they may have voted in the past, found that Boston, Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn. have the highest percentages of adults who consider themselves to be “Independents.” 
In contrast, Pittsburgh, Lexington, K.Y., and Oklahoma City, O.K. have the smallest percentages of self-identified Independents. 

Coupon clipping is on the rise, according to Nielsen.
In June, a Nielsen survey of 50,000 consumers found that nearly one-third used grocery coupons once a week or more.  In December 2007, just one-fourth of those surveyed were clipping coupons at that rate, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday. 
According to a separate study by Scarborough Research, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron, Milwaukee residents reported the highest rates of coupon clipping — 40% of all city households use grocery coupons once a week or more. 
Rochester, NY ranked second, with 38% of …