Three NFL games appeared at the top of the C3 ratings list for the 18-49 year old demographic group. These games, like most sports programming, did not receive much of a lift from rating for live viewing and the C3 number. The top entertainment shows received a bigger boost from DVR playback, however. After three days of DVR playback, Fox’s House rose more than a full rating point to 6.3 from 5.2. ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy rose from a 5.1 live rating to a 6.1 rating on C3.

When it comes to making television programs available online, many companies are testing the consumer adoption of different business models and the technology required for each. In recent months we’ve heard about initiatives such as “OnDemand Online” and “TV Everywhere” from Comcast and Time Warner Cable, respectively. The goal is to make available TV shows online to authenticated cable subscribers, at no cost, in the format that each show was originally presented on television – the same program, the same national commercials. These initiatives have received a lot of support from cable and broadcast network programmers.

OnDemand Online, TV Everywhere and similar offerings could provide the best way for video content providers to monetize TV programs online. Importantly, these initiatives are very compatible with Nielsen’s television ratings system; that is, online audiences viewing these programs could be included in Nielsen’s TV ratings.

At Nielsen, OnDemand Online and TV Everywhere are examples of what we refer to as the “Extended Screen” — initiatives that treat the computer as another screen in the home used to watch television. In fact, we’re already working to capture television viewing that takes place online and to add that viewing back in to the ratings. That includes in our National C3 ratings.

How will we be able to do this? It’s all part of our Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative. Nielsen has developed an Internet software meter that uses the same technology to measure video viewing online as the Nielsen Active/Passive (A/P) Meter does for television. We’ve currently installed this Internet software meter among 375 homes in our National People Meter panel, allowing us to evaluate the measurement of Internet usage alongside TV usage. Given that more than $70 billion of television advertising is bought and sold using Nielsen ratings, we are careful not to take any actions that would dilute the reliability of the core television ratings data. Consequently, we are undertaking an extensive evaluation program before fully integrating television and Internet measurement.

The results of our evaluation show tremendous promise to date. We are positioned to start the roll out of the Internet meter to all People Meter households before the end of this year, with complete installation in 2010 and full implementation in early 2011. In the meantime, we will continue discussions with all our clients about their Extended Screen initiatives and will work with MSOs and programmers to support their tests of OnDemand Online and TV Everywhere. We will also continue our work on other TV/Internet cross platform initiatives such as the TV/Internet Convergence Panel, our TV/Online data fusion and our measurement of online video through VideoCensus. Additionally, we have deployed the Internet software meter to our online panel of over 230,000 individuals to further measure program usage online.

Though no one knows for sure which business models for online video will emerge as the most successful, Nielsen will be prepared to measure audiences no matter which ones prevail.

The automotive industry was the top spender ($3.68 billion), despite a 31% cut over last year. Local auto dealerships – also a perennial top-10 spending category – cut its ad budget 26% through June this year.

TOP TEN PRODUCT CATEGORIES, BY AD SPEND

It wasn’t all bad news for the advertising industry this year. Cable TV was the only media category to see added spending with a 1.5% surge overall and a 0.6% increase for Spanish Language Cable TV. Quick Service Restaurants - the second highest-spending industry – spent $2.2 billion in the first half of ‘09, thanks to a 5% increase over the first half of 2008. And spending on multi-function cell phones more than doubled to almost $233 million.

“While some of the larger categories have cut back spending, we see others that continue to raise the ante on their media investments,” said Annie Touliatos, VP for Nielsen’s advertising information services. “What’s interesting is that we’re not just seeing a rise in spending for recession-friendly products like fast food restaurants.  We’re seeing a lot more promotion of technological innovations like smartphones, computer software, and consumer-driven web sites. These advertisers see potential for their products despite our stressed economy and are leveraging advertising to drive their success.”

Read Nielsen’s complete release on Q2 Ad Spend.

All measured media showed negative growth in this difficult economy, ranging from Spanish-Language Cable TV (-1.1%) to Local Sunday Supplements (-37.7%).

“These first quarter results will hardly come as a surprise to an advertising industry that’s struggling just like many other areas of the American economy,” said Annie Touliatos, VP of Sales Development for Monitor-Plus, Nielsen’s ad tracking service. “Now more than ever it’s important for buyers and sellers to adjust to the changing competitive landscape by carefully analyzing the wide range of advertising intelligence that Nielsen can offer.”

Download the full news release, including a breakdown of product category ad spend.

About This Chart
The Recall Score is the percentage of television viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand/
product of an In-Program placement they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing
Network Reality shows. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all placements occurring in this genre during the Feb 16 – Mar 15, 2009 period (Recall Index). 100 equals average.

Note: For this analysis, In-Program placements were only considered if the occurrence had visual
elements (i.e., was “seen” on-screen) or both visual and auditory elements (i.e., was both “seen” and “mentioned”). Only first-run episodes were considered. Both planned and incidental exposures were included.

Most-Recalled Hybrid Ad 2/16/09 – 3/15/09
RANK	Brand	Hybrid Ad Description (Seconds)	Associated Program(s)	Recall Index
1	Diet Dr Pepper	Get cell phone ready; win trip for two to Big Apple; Which exotic ingredient do you want the chefs to cook with next season?; text or vote on Bravotv.com (:50)	Top Chef (Bravo)	272
2	Diet Dr Pepper	Get cell phone ready; win trip for two to Big Apple; Who should be Top Chef?; text or vote on Bravotv.com (:70)	Top Chef (Bravo)	271
3	Michelob Ultra	An exclusive look at television’s most provocative series, “I won’t stop until we’re together again” (:30)	Nip/Tuck (FX)	235
4	Just For Men	WWE Rewind; Melina vs. Beth Phoenix battling for the women’s gold; Melina remains champion (:50)	WWE Monday Night RAW (USA)	213
5	Ford	Music Video Challenge; enter for a chance to hang with the Idols on the set of a Ford music video and win Ford Fusion (:10)	American Idol (Fox)	194
6	Clean & Clear	For you and your best friends, a 90210 style pre-prom party; go to cwtv.com/countdown for your chance to win; 90210 Tuesdays 9/8c (:20)	90210 (CW)	191
7	Axe	Hair Crisis ‘09 News Break; Dozens of young men with greasy hair have been rejected by hundreds of women; get girl-approved hair (:30)	Comedy Central network	187
8	Cisco	Catch all new episodes of 24 every Monday; see how Cisco WebEx can help you take care of business everywhere without going anywhere (:15)	24 (FOX)	183
9	Michelob Ultra	An exclusive look at television’s most provocative series; “The son I have is the son I love” (:30)	Nip/Tuck (FX)	180
10	SC Johnson	Five finalists have been chosen in SC Johnson Green Your World Contest; go to cwtv.com/greenyourworld, vote for winner (:20)	CW network	178
Nielsen IAG (NielsenIAG.com), Coverage: Primetime programs on ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, A&E, BRAVO, COMEDY, DSC, ESPN, FOOD, FX, HIST, HGTV, LIFE, MTV, NAN, SCI FI, SPEED, TBS, TLC, TNT, USA and VH1

About This Chart:
Hybrids air during commercial pods and include customized ads, branded promos, vignettes, interstitials and micro-series where sponsor messaging is combined with program or entertainment content. Among viewers 13+. Only new executions considered, airing from Feb 16 – Mar 15, 2009. The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who can recall within 24 hours the sponsor of a Hybrid ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing primetime TV on broadcast and major cable networks. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new Hybrids during the time period (Recall Index). 100 equals average Recall.

President-elect Barack Obama placed one-and-a-half times as many spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 to 11/08), and almost twice as many ads dating back to the beginning of January when the primaries were just heating up.

The local numbers show a much bigger discrepancy than those for national cable and network buys. Sen. McCain kept pace w/ President-elect Obama in those categories, with Obama edging out his rival by just 136 ad buys in the cable and network combined, dating back to January.

Other notable campaign facts from Nielsen’s research

• Obama’s ads were on the airwaves over twice as much as McCain’s in the final month before the election (210,245 vs. 97,023 ad buys).
• McCain took early advantage of Obama’s long primary battle with Hillary Clinton, which ended on June 3rd. McCain bought over three and a half times more spot TV ads than Obama in June (26,594 to 7,251), the only month that McCain beat his opponent in that category.
• McCain made a major push with national buys in September, out placing Obama 10 to 1 in cable and network ad buys.
• The two candidates alone combined for almost 850,000 total ad buys dating back to January.

Complete Ad Spends: Jan-Nov 2008