“New Zealanders take their Rugby very seriously as can be seen by an unprecedented audience of viewers who watched at home, at a friend’s home, in a pub or at one of the many outdoor venues set up for the tournament. To establish live viewing of the game both in-home and out-of-home and for the opening ceremony, Nielsen conducted a special survey of all individuals (15+) in their 500-home Television Audience Measurement panel,” said Claire Harris, Managing Director of Nielsen Television Audience Measurement in New Zealand.

The Rugby World Cup is the third biggest international sporting event after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. 80 nations compete in qualifiers over 3 years for 20 spots in the final competition. The match between the 2011 Host nation’s team, the New Zealand All Blacks, and the Pacific Island nation of Tonga, was the first of 48 matches to be played and televised over the ensuing six weeks. The 2011 qualifying teams also include Australia, England, France, Italy, South Africa, United States, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, who are all competing for the holy grail of International Rugby, the Webb Ellis Cup.

“It was a perfect day for the Opening Ceremony and inaugural match of the tournament, and there were numerous outdoor venues to watch the game with crowds exceeding all expectations.

“The massive audience for the opening game illustrates the power of television in making such a wonderful event accessible to sports fans right across the country,” Harris added.

The study also showed that people viewing out-of-home were more likely to be male, younger and from Auckland.

Reality Rises
Reality first made an appearance in the top 10 rankings in 2000, and since the 2002-2003 season has consistently captured the largest percentage of the audience watching the top 10 broadcast programs.  In the 2007-2008 season, reality programming captured 77 percent of the total audience viewing those top 10 programs.

Sports Scores
The audience for Sports Events in the top 10 programs has hovered around 8 percent since the 2001 season, until it jumped to 19.4 percent in the 2009-2010 season and held tight last year.

Dramas Deliver
The audience for General Dramas peaked in the 2005-2006 season, accounting for 42.8 percent of the total audience,  but decreased by about half last year, consisting of 21.6 percent of the total audience. Still, they have remained a consistent presence in the top 10.

Sitcoms Sit Out
Sitcoms, on the other hand, have had a tougher time holding a spot in the top 10. Once synonymous with primetime broadcasts, sitcoms disappeared from the ranking in the 2004-2005 season, only to return again briefly in the 2008-2009 season, making up just 7.4 percent of the total combined audience of the top ten programs.

Looking Ahead to this TV Season
Monday’s official kickoff of the Fall TV season creates opportunity for new TV hits and misses.  Will sitcoms reclaim their position in the top ten ranking or will reality programs extend their reign? Or, will a new program type emerge and shake up the rankings yet again?  Stay tuned.

Methodology
Nielsen analyzed the broadcast prime ranking reports for the September to September seasons over the past decade (September-STD for the 2010-2011 season) to determine the top genres of TV programs (type codes).

For each season, we selected the top ten broadcast primetime programs (ranked on HH rating) and added the average audience of each program together, to get one figure for the total combined audience of the top ten programs.  Then, we added up the average audiences for each type code in the top ten list and calculated the percentage of the total audience for each type code.  For example, in the 2001-2002 season, “General Drama” programming held 29.5% of the total audience for the top ten broadcast primetime programs.

“Super Bowl XLV caps what is arguably the most successful season that any sports league has ever had,” said Pat McDonough,   “The number of people watching NFL games has never been higher, with 24% more people watching the average NFL game this year than just five years ago.  The Super Bowl continues to be in a category of its own, with an appeal that transcends sports and extends even to the commercials.  Because of the cliff-hanger nature of the game, viewers were tuning in until the very end, driving viewing levels to new heights.”

Over the past several years, the NFL has attracted larger audiences by broadening its appeal to new audiences, including women and Hispanics, by building up high-profile players – especially quarterbacks – to personify the league and by cross-promoting the games across multiple television networks and emerging digital platforms.

Pittsburgh and Milwaukee Lead Local Market viewing
In the local markets, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh were tied, with a 59.7 household rating.  Other high local market ratings include Columbus, OH and Nashville.

According to The Nielsen Sports Media Exposure Index, which measures media exposure on TV and online, the Cowboys were still the most popular NFL team in America last season. Jerry Jones’s franchise earned the top indexed score of 100, far surpassing the runner-up Pittsburgh Steelers who finished with an index of 81.

The Cowboys’ top ranking was boosted by first-place showings in two of the four categories tallied by Nielsen: gross audience during nationally televised games and monthly unique audience to the team web site. The other two categories – local team ratings and total buzz volume – were captured by the Saints and New York Giants, respectively.

Dallas has held the top two spots in each of the last two years. The Steelers moved up from third to second, swapping places with the Giants. The Minnesota Vikings, aided no doubt by the presence and performance of legendary QB Brett Favre,  climbed from 13th place in 2008 to a tie for 4th in the 2009 regular season ranking. The Washington Redskins, meanwhile, dropped from 5th in 2008 to 11th in 2009.

NFC teams dominated the 2009 rankings. Seven of the top 10 teams  represented the conference, while the Steelers, Colts (t-8th) and Patriots (10th) were the only three AFC teams to crack the top third of the list.

Among the two New York teams, the Giants had the most media exposure, ranking 15 spots ahead of the Jets. And even despite drawing 38% lower local market ratings than their Bay Area rivals, the Oakland Raiders were the most popular national brand out of Northern California, ranking two spots ahead of the San Francisco 49ers (25th vs. 27th).

The Nielsen Sports Media Exposure Index measured all 32 NFL teams in four categories during the 2009 regular season: local team ratings, gross national TV audience, online buzz volume, and monthly unique audiences to official team websites. Teams in each category were assigned a score, with the top rank worth 100 points and each subsequent ranking assigned a lower weighted score based its distance from the top. Final team rankings were calculated using the sum of scores across all four categories, and then indexed with the highest total equaling 100.

Nielsen’s NFL Media Exposure Index was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal.

“Focus on the Family” earned 33.4% of total Super Bowl buzz in a two-month period ending January 31st. ManCrunch achieved 6% of the total online buzz in that time, even though its commercial will not air during the Super Bowl after CBS declined to run it. Similarly, Pepsi is the second most discussed advertiser associated with the Super Bowl in the last two months, despite company plans to not advertise the brand during this year’s game.

“The early buzz data makes one thing clear — controversy drives conversation,” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of digital strategy at The Nielsen Company. “Both the anti-abortion ad and the gay-themed ad have triggered significant levels of conversation. Other advertisers looking to drive buzz on top of their ads may need to work a bit harder to navigate around the controversial content.”

Even though the “Focus on the Family” ad has earned the most online buzz, 75% of it is not directly linked to the organization. Consumers instead often refer to it as the “Tim Tebow ad” or the “Tim Tebow pro-life ad” without directly mentioning “Focus on the Family.”

The emergence of hot-button social issues alters the landscape of where Super Bowl marketing is discussed. While online sports communities remain a force in the Super Bowl marketing dialogue, political message boards are driving 21% of the buzz.

There’s a reason why products, brands, and issues associated with the Super Bowl generate so much hype. According to Nielsen’s historical data, ten Super Bowls rank among the 20 highest rated U.S. broadcasts since 1961. Meanwhile, the top 50 sports broadcasts of all time include 40 Super Bowls – meaning only three of the game’s telecasts do not make the list.

Last year’s game was the most viewed Super Bowl ever with an average of 98.7 million viewers. It was the fourth consecutive year of overall viewership growth since Super Bowl XXXIX was viewed by 86.1 million in 2005. The trend is also clear when broken down by men and women.

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.

The Nielsen Company looked back at the four Stanley Cup Finals match-ups that have gone the full seven games since 2000 and in each case, Game 7 was a ratings windfall. For example, games one through six of the 2006 finals between Edmonton and Carolina averaged 2.4 million viewers. Game 7, however, more than doubled that figure with 5.3 million viewers.

In 2003, when the New Jersey Devils finished off the Anaheim Ducks, Game 7 was watched by 7.2 million U.S. viewers on ABC. Not only did the game attract 140% more viewers than the average of the previous six games, but it was also (and still is) the most-watched Stanley Cup Finals game since at least 1992.

The “Game 7″ effect isn’t just limited to the NHL. When Detroit and San Antonio took the NBA Finals to the limit in 2005, Game 7 was watched by 65% more viewers than the series average to date. And in the eight MLB World Series or LCS matchups to go the full seven games, since 2000, Game 7 viewership overshadowed the rest of the series’ averages each time by anywhere from 74% to 94%.

Below are historical U.S. television ratings for NFL Kickoff Games since 2002.

In terms of TV ratings, the 2003 game, which drew 19.1 million U.S. viewers, is the year to beat.  Last year’s game attracted approximately 17.5 million viewers.

The highly-anticipated Summer Olympics in Beijing should continue the trend.  NBC will feature 1,400 hours of television coverage of the Summer Olympics with an additional 2,200 hours to be streamed online. 

The growth in sports programming comes on the heels of a trying time for entertainment programming.