Advertising During Dems’ Convention Tops RNC Ads

ABC, CBS, and NBC aired almost three times more TV advertising during the Democratic National Convention than during the Republican National Convention, Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported Friday.

The three networks aired more than 36 minutes of commercials, including promotional announcements and public service announcements, during the DNC — compared with just 13 minutes of commercials during the GOP convention, according to Nielsen.

Of the three networks, CBS aired the most advertising during both conventions.

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Two-Thirds Of U.S. Households Tuned In To Dems’ and GOP’s Conventions

It’s one of the few points not up for debate this election season: TV coverage of the typically uneventful U.S. political conventions drew record-breaking audiences. 

Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. households (64.5%) — 120.1 million people age two or older — watched at least one of the 2008 political conventions, according to a new analysis released Thursday by Nielsen. 

Viewership levels for the Democratic and Republican conventions were essentially even, with about half of all U.S. households watching each.  Overall, 15% of all homes tuned in to the Republican National Convention only, while 15.7% tuned in to just the Democratic National Convention.  Another 33.9% of all households tuned in to both conventions.

Homes that watched both conventions were likely to be older (age 65+) and better educated (32.3% had college degrees) than viewers who watched only one of the conventions. 

RNC-only households were usually bigger (four people or more), had higher incomes ($100,000+), and were more likely to be white, while DNC-only households were smaller (two people), less wealthy ($20,000 or less), and more likely to be African American.

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Prez Battle Flourishes Online During Political Conventions

Vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin may be in the headlines, but the chatter in the blogosphere remains focused on the presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, according to Nielsen Online.

Online Buzz
An analysis by Nielsen of the online discussions around more than 30 speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions showed Obama leading McCain, followed by Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton.  Vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, rounded out the top five most buzzworthy politicians.

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McCain Tops Obama’s Record-Breaking Ratings

On Thursday night, John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention bested Barack Obama’s record-breaking viewership numbers from last week by 500,000 viewers.

More than 38.9 million people tuned in to coverage of the final night of the GOP convention.  In comparison, Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention drew 38.4 million viewers.

For the third night in a row, more women (19.2 million) than men (17.9 million) watched the RNC coverage.  Still, McCain’s speech drew significantly more men than Obama’s acceptance speech (16.2 million).  In contrast, Obama drew more women (19.9 million) than McCain.

White viewers flocked to their TV’s for McCain’s speech (32.2 million vs. 27 million for Obama).   But among African Americans, the reverse was true: 7.5 million African Americans watched Obama’s speech last week, while just 3.1 million tuned in for McCain’s speech.

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Palin Triggers RNC Ratings Spike

More than 37.2 million people tuned in for coverage of the third night of the 2008 Republican National Convention, which featured Sarah Palin’s much anticipated national debut. 

Wednesday night’s RNC broadcasts attracted just a 1.1 million fewer viewers than Barack Obama’s record-breaking speech on day four of the Democratic convention. 

Coverage of day three of the GOP convention drew a large female audience (19.5 million) — 5.2 million more women than tuned in for day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton addressed the delegates, and 6.9 million more women than watched Joe Biden accept the Democrats’ vice presidential nomination last Wednesday night.

Viewers age 55 and older also continued to dominate the RNC’s TV audience, with 25.2% of all Americans in that age group — 17.9 million people — watching Wednesday night’s coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

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Thompson, Lieberman Draw Fewer Viewers Than Dems’ Day 2

More than 21.5 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Republican National Convention — a 17% decrease from the 26 million viewers who tuned in last week for day two of the Democratic National Convention.

Tuesday night’s speeches by Former Senator Fred Thompson and Senator Joe Lieberman drew many more women (11.2 million) than men (9.5 million), as was also the case on day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton delivered her endorsement of Barack Obama.

So far, coverage of the GOP convention has not drawn the large numbers of African American viewers that the Democrats’ convention attracted last week.  On Tuesday night, 2.1 million African American viewers (5.8% of all African Americans) tuned in for coverage of the RNC.  In comparison, more than double that number — 4.6 million African Americans (12.7% of all African Americans) — tuned in to day two of the DNC.

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Day One Republican Convention TV Ratings Cancelled

On Monday September 1, 2008 television news coverage of Hurricane Gustav replaced planned coverage of the Republican Convention on most broadcast and cable networks.  As a result, Nielsen will not be providing audience estimates for Monday night’s convention. 
 
If normal convention coverage returns on Tuesday, Nielsen will plan to provide combined network audience estimates similar to those from last week’s Democratic convention. 

View the full media alert.

Nielsen’s Pre-Convention Campaign Scorecard

With the national political conventions starting next week, pundits and the general public, alike, are scrutinizing Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaign strategies.

On Thursday, Nielsen joined the fray, releasing an analysis of the candidates’ online presence and buzz, their advertising campaigns, and TV viewership for past conventions. 

Online Audience and Videos Viewed
BarackObama.com’s unique audience was twice as large as JohnMcCain.com’s in both June and July 2008.  However, in July, the number of video streams on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled, possibly due to press coverage around Senator John McCain’s ad that compared Senator Barack Obama to Paris Hilton.

Blogosphere Buzz 
Senator Obama maintains the lead in overall buzz volume on blogs and message boards.  Between June 1 and August 17, Senator Obama was mentioned on blogs twice as frequently as Senator McCain.
 
Online Advertising
During the summer, the “Obama for America” image-based online advertising campaign increased fivefold — from 80 million impressions in June to 417 million impressions in July. 

TV Advertising
During June and July 2008, Senators Obama and McCain targeted their local TV spots at key battleground states including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.  Between June 4, when campaigning for the general election began, and August 1,  Senator McCain ran significantly fewer local TV spots (57,132) than Senator Obama (70,381), but placed more than twice as many national cable ads (526) as Senator Obama (142). 

TV Viewership: Past Conventions
Since 1960, only three Republican National Conventions have drawn more television households than the Democratic National Convention: 1972 (presumptive nominee Richard Nixon), 1976 (presumptive nominee Gerald Ford), and 2004 (presumptive nominee George W. Bush).

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TV Week, Multichannel News, and Media Post.