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.

John McCain’s campaign ran 74% more ads during the Republican convention (11,845) than during the Democratic National Convention (6,791).  In contrast, Barack Obama’s campaign maintained consistent levels of advertising during both conventions (10,756 during the Democratic convention; 10,468 during the GOP convention).

Both parties’ committees ran more advertising during the opposing party’s convention than during their own.  The Republican National Committee Campaign ran 1,787 commercials during the Democratic Convention, but only 442 during the Republican Convention, while the Democratic National Committee Campaign aired 2,553 ads during the Republican Convention, but only 2,046 during the Democratic Convention. 

Political organizations, including “527” groups, ran approximately the same number of ads during both conventions: 22,245 spots during the Democratic convention and 25,767 during the GOP convention.

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.

One-fifth (21.2%) of DNC-only homes were headed by an African American, while 83.5% of RNC-only homes were headed someone who is white.

Similar percentages of African American and white viewers tuned in to both conventions (35.7% and 34.5%, respectively).  Among African Americans, 27.4% watched only the DNC, and only 8.1% watched only the RNC.  Meanwhile, 16.2% of white viewers watched the RNC only, and 13.6% watched the DNC only.

Read the full report — and stay tuned during the presidential debates for more Nielsen TV audience analyses.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, Broadcasting & Cable, and Multichannel News.

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.

Online Traffic
Web traffic to BarackObama.com increased 32% during the week of the Democratic National Convention.  During the same period, traffic to McCain’s website increased 242%, perhaps driven by the announcement, late in the week, of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Still, traffic to Obama’s site outpaced traffic to McCain’s site by a two-to-one ratio in the week ending August 31.

Online Advertising
John McCain’s campaign increased its online advertising in August, with image-based impressions up by 254% month-over-month and sponsored search links up by 43%.

Barack Obama’s campaign placed fewer online ad impressions during the same time period, reducing image-based impressions by 48% and sponsored links by 18%.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, The Boston Globe, Condé Nast Portfolio, and Silicon Alley Insider.

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.

The TV audience for day four of the GOP convention was larger (+41%) than the audience for the same night during the 2004 convention, which drew 27.5 million viewers.

On Thursday, September 4, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Telemundo, and Univision airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11:15pm EST.

Note:  Nielsen’s new universe estimates for the 2008-09 television season took effect on September 1, 2008, reflecting a 1.3% increase in TV households and viewers aged two or older.  As a result, each rating point represents more households and persons.  Read about the new totals.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Multichannel News, Ad Age, and on MarketWatch.com.

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.

The TV audience for day three of the 2008 GOP convention was significantly larger (+99%) than the audience for the same night during the 2004 convention, which drew 18.7 million viewers.

On Wednesday, September 3, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with all six networks noted above airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11:15pm EST.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Los Angeles Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Boston Herald, and on the BBC’s website and MarketWatch.com.

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.

Compared to day two of the 2004 GOP convention, which drew more than 22 million viewers, the audience for day two of the 2008 convention was slightly lower, with approximately 600,000 fewer viewers.  

On Tuesday, September 2, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11pm EST.

On Monday, September 1, the first night of the GOP convention, TV coverage of Hurricane Gustav replaced planned coverage of the convention on most broadcast and cable networks.  As a result, Nielsen did not be provide audience estimates for Monday night’s convention.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, TV Week, and Variety.

View the full media alert.

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.