The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false. To develop the best strategy around teens and media, start by challenging popular assumptions about teens.

A ground-breaking study conducted by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners found that younger baby boomers – those 45-54 years old – are the top consumers of video media.
Conducted on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, the study ran over the course of a year and used a custom media collector program developed by Ball State.  Researchers gathered a wide range of data usage of any of the four categories of screens: traditional TVs (including DVD/VCR and …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAY
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE MON-12/15/2008
UNI
Monday
5,060,000

2
CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL MON-12/15/2008
UNI
Monday
4,871,000

3
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE TUE-12/16/2008
UNI
Tuesday
4,852,000

4
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE WED-12/17/2008
UNI
Wednesday
4,725,000

5
CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL TUE-12/16/2008
UNI
Tuesday
4,723,000

6
CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL WED-12/17/2008
UNI
Wednesday
4,692,000

7
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI-12/19/2008
UNI
Friday
4,586,000

8
CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL THU-12/18/2008
UNI
Thursday
4,543,000

9
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE THU-12/18/2008
UNI
Thursday
4,489,000

10
CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL FRI-12/19/2008
UNI
Friday
4,325,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (December 15, 2008 – December 21, 2008)

The penetration of U.S. households completely unready for the transition to digital television dropped from 7.4% in November to 6.8% in December, Nielsen reported Friday.
Non-Hispanic households continue to be more ready for the transition than Hispanic households, but the rate of Hispanic readiness is picking up. After seeing no change in unready Hispanic households from October to November, that percentage dropped from 12.4% to 11.5% in December.

Third quarter data released Thursday by Nielsen showed a small decline in ad spending from January to September of this year.
Overall ad spending dropped 0.6% in the first nine months of 2008, compared to the same time period in 2007. 
The drop came despite overall growth in TV advertising.  Four of the top-five growing media were TV-based.

Microsoft’s Xbox is the most buzzed about game console so far this holiday season, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.
The Xbox 360 garnered the largest share of online buzz between November 1 and December 9, with 41.6% of blog messages mentioning Xbox, Wii or Playstation.
In comparison, Nintendo’s Wii was mentioned in 29.8% of game console blog messages, while Sony’s Playstation ranked third with mentions in 28.6% of gaming-related blog posts.

The Internet played an important role in the 2008 election campaign, so it’s no surprise that on Election Day, people used multiple news sources to follow results.  By combining television and Internet samples through a process known as fusion, Nielsen provides new data showing how the two media worked together to meet the demand for election news updates.
A total of 163.6 million adults sought election coverage from either television or the Internet — or both. This shows the unduplicated or cumulative audience that used one or the other medium for at …

At 70 million copies sold — and counting, since its release in 1988, “Madden NFL Football” is the most popular sports video game of all time.
What’s driving the wild success of EA Sports’ star product? 
A marketing vision that combines a deep understanding of the game’s core fan base with an innovative, “three-screen” strategy that leverages TV, online, and mobile phone outlets for the game, Matt Foran of Nielsen Sports, writes in the November issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Advertising in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America grew by 1.5%, year-over-year, in the second quarter of 2008, Nielsen reported Wednesday.
Strong advertising growth in the Asia-Pacific region (+7.6% over Q2 2007) drove the increase, according to data released in Nielsen’s latest Global AdView Pulse report.
Ad spending trends worldwide showed significant variations — with overall advertising declines recorded in North America (-1%) and Europe (-3%).

Advertising spending for the first half of 2008 declined by 1.4% compared to the same period last year, Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported Thursday.
Despite a continued softening of the economy, several media showed healthy growth in advertising for the first half.  Advertising on Cable TV (+8.1%), Syndication TV (+7.2%), and National Sunday Supplements (+7.2%) saw the largest growth, according to Nielsen.  Spot Radio fared worst among the 19 media categories analyzed by Nielsen (-10.1%). 
Although overall Internet ad spending, when including paid search and online video advertising, was up by 11% during the first half of …