ESPN enthusiasts like their sports — and the more they watch sports, the more ways they follow it.
Sports fans who watched both ESPN and used ESPN.com spent 27% more time watching ESPN TV than TV-only users — and 50% more time using ESPN.com than Internet-only viewers, according to a recent study of ESPN fans’ cross-platform media consumption habits by Nielsen Connections.
Pete Doe, Managing Director, Nielsen Connections, and Glenn Enoch, Vice President, Audience Research, ESPN, reported the findings of that research in the September issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

FOX’s “House” and ESPN’s “Home Run Derby” are the most popular primetime programs on broadcast and cable, respectively, among U.S. TV viewers watching from their offices, fitness clubs, hotels, and bars.
In July, each show drew 570,000 out-of-home viewers, according to Nielsen and Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI), which recently began delivering the first daily, all-electronic, national TV ratings for viewing that occurs outside of the home.
Nielsen and IMMI’s new syndicated, national service relies on a sample of 2,500 panelists that is separate from Nielsen’s National People Meter sample.
Later this year …

With digital coverage of the Beijing Olympics more ambitious than ever before and industry analysts issuing dire predictions of the death of TV, The Christian Science Monitor had to pop the question: “Is this the summer that the Internet finally kills television as we once knew it?”
Short answer: the jury is still out.  Monitor staff writer Gregory Lamb, who queried a range of experts on the topic, outlines the arguments on both sides, but steers clear of drawing any conclusions.
The story briefly addresses the prospects for video viewing via mobile …

Taco Bell’s Fruista Freeze spot, which features a giant talking turtle, topped Nielsen IAG’s list of the 10 most-liked new TV ads featured in Advertising Age on Wednesday. 
The Ad Age list also ranked the 10 most-recalled ads for the four-week period from May 19 to June 15, 2008.  Cymbalta’s “Where does depression hurt; Who does depression hurt?” ad topped that list.
Nielsen IAG measures consumer engagement with television programs, national commercials and product placements.

Despite the growing popularity of viewing television content online, most adults (94%) who subscribe to cable or satellite television services prefer to watch television on traditional TV sets, according to new research conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).
One-third of the adult broadband users (35%) surveyed for the Nielsen-CTAM study said they had watched at least one television program originally shown on TV via the Internet. Of those who sought out video content online, 87% watched television programs directly from a TV network …