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 during the game was 38 minutes and 5 seconds, and 48 unique brands competed for viewers’ attention.

• The most-liked ad was Budweiser’s spot featuring a Clydesdale competing with a Dalmation in a game of fetch.  This was also the most-recalled ad of the game.  Altogether, Anheuser-Busch produced three of the most recalled ads.

• Emotional and feel-good ads from Budweiser and Pedigree resounded with women, while med tended to like humorous commercials from Pepsi and Doritos.

• Locally, Pittsburgh had the #1 Metered Market performance with a 53.5 household rating, while Phoenix was #9 with a 47.5 household rating.

Nielsen’s complete press release about its annual report on Super Bowl advertising and viewing with more detailed stats and data can be viewed here.

View commercials, storyboards, and ratings from the Super Bowl since 1999, via Monitor Plus.

• In terms of DMA’s (Designated Market Area), Phoenix is ranked 12th and Pittsburgh 23^rd of the 56 metered markets. The 2006 Super Bowl featured a similar match-up with Seattle, ranked the 13^th largest DMA, against Pittsburgh, then 22^nd. 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 in 2005 (NE-PHI played in Jacksonville) with a 58.9 HH rating. For a participating team’s market, Atlanta owns the largest HH rating with a 58.2 in 1999 (DEN-ATL). Over the past decade, the Kansas City DMA has averaged the highest household rating, with 49.5% of television households tuning in to the Super Bowl each year (see chart below).

• Last year’s thrilling Super Bowl owes a large part of its record-breaking ratings’ success to a late-game viewer surge. At 10:02 PM, the final minute of the game, viewership peaked at a 51.3 HH rating, 72 share and over 112 million viewers. The final 30 minutes of the broadcast delivered a 47.5 HH rating. This was a 13% increase compared to all prior minutes (42.0).

• Since 2002, every Super Bowl has had its highest rating point occur in the 4^th quarter and - in all but one instance - after 10PM ET (the Bears-Colts ended at 9:57PM ET). Additionally, Super Bowls that went down to the wire (NE-STL, NE-CAR, NYG-NE) experience a late increase in share percent, while games that were less competitive (TB-OAK, NE-PHI, PITT-SEA, IND-CHI) had share levels that were flat or declining in the final half hour.

• The Super Bowl ratings are higher in HD households. Last year’s game received a 56.5 rating in HD capable/receivable homes. These homes over-indexed the composite HH rating by 31%.

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 local TV households watched on ABC as Penn State maintained its undefeated status.

On Sunday, 44.1% of Pittsburgh households — the highest local market rating earned by any NFL game so far this season — tuned in to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the New York Giants.  Sunday’s TV audience topped the Pittsburgh market’s previous season high NFL rating of 41.1, earned when the Steelers played their cross-state rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Sunday, Sept. 21.

Across the state in Philadelphia, baseball fans were glued to their tubes this weekend for Games 3 and 4 of the MLB World Series.  On Saturday night, 28.1% of local Philadelphia households tuned in for Game 3, with 93% of that audience staying with the game, through multiple rain delays, until its conclusion at 1:48am EST. 

Undetered by a late night of baseball, Philadelphians were back in front of their televisions Sunday afternoon for the Eagles vs. Atlanta Falcons football game, which earned a 27.9 local household rating.  The TV sports marathon continued into the evening, when 38.9% of local Philadelphia households tuned in to watch Game 4 of the World Series.

Stay tuned on NielsenWire for daily updates on World Series national TV ratings.

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: they flock to movie theaters for new releases, but eschew almost all other forms of entertainment, ranking lowest nationwide in newspaper and reality TV consumption, according to Nielsen. 

Chicagoans, Pittsburghers, Bostonians, and residents of Green Bay (Wisconsin) were similarly single-minded – about sports.  Never mind the movies, these cities love heading to the stadium for a game – or perhaps a rock concert, according to Nielsen.

Read Nielsen PreView’s complete report.

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. 

Nationally, 27% of adults consider themselves to be politically Independent.

Scarborough’s survey also examined “Leaning Independents” — those adults who described themselves in Scarborough’s study as “Independent, but feel closer to Democrat,” or “Independent, but feel closer to Republican.”

Seattle and Providence, R.I. had the highest percentages of Democrat-leaning Independents (17%), while Salt Lake City and Spokane, W.A. had the highest percentages of Republican-leaning Independents (15%).

Nationally, 9% of adults identified themselves as Democrat-leaning Independents, while 8% of adults characterized themselves as Republican-leaning Independents.

View the full press release.

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 households clipping grocery coupons with this frequency, while Buffalo, NY; Toledo and Columbus, OH; Hartford and New Haven, CT; and Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton, PA, where 36% of households are regular coupons clippers, tied for third place. 

Albuquerque and Sante Fe, NM households had the lowest rate of coupon clipping — just 14% use coupons on a regular basis, according to Scarborough.