Year-over-year growth at hypermarkets reached 6% during the period, while the smallest convenience outlets declined by almost 2% during the 12-week period.

In comparison, year-over-year growth in the British grocery sector stood at 3.2% during the 12 weeks ending 29 November, according to Nielsen.  Grocery multiples showed stronger growth (+5.6%) during the period.

“In order to save money shoppers are making less visits to grocery stores,” Mike Watkins, senior manager retailer services, Nielsen, noted.  “Nielsen has identified that virtually every major food retailer saw the number of visits per shopper fall in November versus a year ago and the big casualties are those retailers that people visit to do top up, small basket, and indulgence shops.”

According to Nielsen, there are exceptions to this trend.  Retailers like Morrisons and Asda, and value retailers like Iceland drew plenty of shoppers — and even showed accelerating sales in the most recent 12-week period. 

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According to Nielsen, the chain increased its market share from 14.9% a year ago to 15.6% during the last quarter — the retailer’s highest ever market share, aside from the Christmas 2007 season.

Asda’s performance (8.7% sales growth) during the most recent 12-week period ending November 1, 2008 easily bested the rest of the British grocery market, Nielsen reported Tuesday.  The chain showed especially strong growth during October, when the global financial crisis reached a boiling point.

Growth (by value) of food sales at British supermarkets continued to slow during the most recent 12-week period, dipping to 5.1%, versus the same period in 2007, according to Nielsen.

During the previous 12-week period ending October 4, food sales growth was slightly stronger in Britain (5.4%), despite especially weak September sales growth (4.5%).

“The topline growths at the Multiples are slowing, when they should, in fact, be accelerating,” Mike Watkins, senior manager, retailer services, Nielsen, noted.  “It’s looking like a tough Christmas ahead for food retailers.”

Among the top UK food retailers, Tesco remained the dominant value retailer, with a 28.1% share of grocery market spending during 12-week period ending November 1, 2008 — up 0.1% over the chain’s 28.0% share of value sales during the same period last year.

Morrisons continued to grow by more than 9% year over year for the quarter, but in the most recent four weeks, the chain’s growth dropped to under 7% year over year.

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NBC.com, which grew 312% month-over-month, saw the largest September increase in video viewers, followed by FOX Broadcasting and ABC.com, with 165% and 105% growth, respectively, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.

“A combination of series and season premiers, political news and parodies, and coverage of the financial crisis all contributed to increased online video viewing for the television networks in September,” Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted. “Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to catch up on content they missed when it aired on television and the networks are beginning to capitalize on this trend.”

Total video streams in a variety of entertainment categories also increased last month.

Overall, the number of unique viewers streaming video online increased 6% — from 117,916 viewers in August to 125,061 in September.  Meanwhile, total video streams increased 10% month-over-month — from 8.06 million in August to 8.89 million in September.

YouTube, Yahoo! and Fox Interactive Media were the top brands, ranked by video streams, during September.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, Media Post, and Biz Report.com.