Nielsen Wire » sports fans

Giants vs Patriots: Playbook for the Social Super Bowl

matth — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:49:24 +0000

Which Super Bowl XLVI team is winning the online competition? According to Nielsen and NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, it might be a draw: the New England Patriots had more visitors on their team’s website, but the New York Giants have more buzz on social media.

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Patriots have more online visitors, but Giants fans run up web stats

During the run up to the playoffs in December 2011, the Patriots had 644,000 unique visitors to their official website, topping the Giants’ 574,000 visitors. However, Giants fans were more engaged when visiting their team’s website, viewing nearly twice as many pages (17 page views per person) compared to Patriots visitors, and spending over 10 minutes each on average.

Super Bowl buzz: Giants fans cheer more for team, Tom Brady is MVP of social media

Fans’ excitement throughout the playoffs carried over to social media. The Giants had more buzz about their team each week, with a 59 percent share of buzz compared to the Patriots’ 41 percent of buzz volume on blogs, message boards/forums, public posts on Twitter and Facebook and online news posts. But Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady surpassed Giants QB Eli Manning, with nearly double the amount of buzz.

Networks Air Over 43,000 Hours of Sports Event Coverage in 2009

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:48:29 +0000

National broadcast and cable TV networks aired over 43,700 hours of sporting events in the U.S. last year, according to new statistics released in Nielsen’s report on “The Changing Face of Sports Media.” Nielsen also found that advertisers spent an estimated $7.6 billion on sports programming alone in 2009.

According to the report, sports fans turned to the computer screen in overwhelming numbers to complement TV viewership. Nielsen estimates that 81 million people in the U.S. visited sports websites each month in 2009. Fans used the internet to track all the major storylines in sports, from A-Rod’s steroid admission, to Tiger’s very public downfall, and everything in between:

“The data reveal that we are living in an incredible time for sports consumption,” said Stephen Master, VP of Nielsen Sports. “Leagues have used websites, social networks, and smartphones to create a virtual sports bar for fan dialogue to help the buzz surrounding major televised sporting events.”

Download The Changing Face of Sports Media, which includes a breakdown of TV, online, advertising statistics for each major sport.

Finding The Avid Sports Fan In Season

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:51:06 +0000

When is the best time to engage with sport fans?

It may depend on the time of the year, according to a multi-sport study from Nielsen PreView. The research, which analyzed fan loyalty for more than a dozen sports found that while some fans are fully dedicated to one sport, many have competing loyalties that affect their engagement with each sport.

For instance, while NCAA Basketball season begins in the fall – when baseball and football are also on the sports scene, February and March are the prime months when basketball fans are most engaged in their sport.

Sports sponsorship and licensing is at least a $17 billion business in the U.S., Nielsen PreView’s study notes. With stakes that big, being able to gauge fan engagement across a variety of sports – in order to time ad spending – is no mere game.

View Nielsen PreView’s study.

Most Sports-Obsessed U.S. City: Columbus, OH

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:00:17 +0000

Columbus, OH is the number one sports town in the U.S., Scarborough Sports Marketing, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron, reported Wednesday.

Two-thirds (66%) of adults in Columbus reported being “very” interested in at least one of the 29 sports measured by Scarborough, including the major leagues, motor sports, college sports, minor leagues, and the Olympics, among others.

Boston (64%), Buffalo (63%), and Pittsburgh (63%) rounded out the top sports markets.

Nationally, 56% of all adults are avid sports fans, according to Scarborough.

Top 10 U.S. Sports Towns	% Avid Sports Fans
Columbus, OH	66%
Boston, MA	64%
Buffalo, NY	63%
Pittsburgh, PA	63%
Green Bay/Appleton, WI	62%
Providence/New Bedford, RI	62%
Denver, CO	62%
Rochester, NY	62%
Louisville, KY	62%
Cleveland/Akron, OH	62%
San Antonio, TX	62%
Birmingham, AL	62%
Spokane, WA	61%
Dayton, OH	61%
Jacksonville, FL	61%
Indianapolis, IN	61%
Albany/Schenectady/Troy, NY	60%
Oklahoma City, OK	60%
Lexington, KY	60%
Flint/Saginaw/Bay City, MI	60%
Toledo, OH	60%
Colorado Springs/Pueblo, CO	60%
Mobile/Pensacola, FL	60%
Detroit, MI	60%
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX	59%
Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, NC	59%
Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport News, VA	59%
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MI	59%
Washington, D.C.	59%
St. Louis, MO	59%
Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA	59%
Des Moines/Ames, IA	59%
Tampa/St.Petersburg, FL	58%
Tulsa, OK	58%
Philadelphia, PA	58%
Charlotte, NC	58%
Milwaukee, WI	58%
Las Vegas, NV	58%
Seattle/Tacoma, WA	58%
Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM	57%
Hartford/New Haven, CT	57%
Chicago, IL	57%
Salt Lake City, UT	57%
New Orleans, LA	57%
Baltimore, MD	57%
Knoxville, TN	57%
Cincinnati, OH	57%
Nashville, TN	57%
Kansas City, MO	57%
Richmond/Petersburg, VA	57%
Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville/Anderson, SC	57%
NATIONAL AVERAGE	56%
Source: Scarborough Sports Marketing (2008).

View the full press release.