The Nielsen Company compared the network TV ratings for the 3rd and 4th rounds of golf tournaments played by Woods after the U.S. Open in 2007 with those same tournaments he missed in 2008 due to a season-ending knee injury. And the results are just what you might expect: Tiger’s absence almost singlehandedly sliced tour ratings in half.

VIEWERSHIP OF PGA TOURNAMENTS MISSED BY TIGER WOODS DUE TO INJURY IN 2008-09

The average household rating/share for the 2007-08 tournaments played by Tiger was 3.3/8. The same tournaments played without the injured Tiger in 2008-09 averaged 1.7/4. An estimated average of 4.6 million viewers tuned in to those tournaments played by Tiger, compared to 2.4 million the following year, a drop of almost 47%.

For the record, Tiger won last year’s Accenture Match Play Championship in front of an average 4.2 million TV viewers tuned to NBC.

The “Tiger Effect” extends beyond TV ratings; it has an impact on web traffic, as well. When Tiger amazed fans with his victory at the U.S. Open last June, it was also a victory for the PGA Tour’s Web site, which drew its highest audience of the year that month, with 1.6 million unique visitors. In fact, the average monthly PGA Tour Web traffic for April through June was 24 percent higher than in the following three months, after Tiger’s departure from the tour.

Source: The Nielsen Company 2009

Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13% increase over this year’s Black Friday Web traffic.

Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay drew the largest unique audience (10.6 million), while Amazon and Wal-Mart claimed second and third places, with 9 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively.

Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears’ site saw the fastest growth (+58%, year over year).

Beauty was the fastest growing product category on Monday, increasing 151% over the previous Monday, November 24, 2008.

Toys/Videogames ranked second, growing 112% Monday over Monday, while Apparel rounded out the top three with an increase of 58%.

“The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales,” Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted.  “It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15th will be the peak day for online shopping traffic.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Ad Age, PC World, the Orlando Sentinel, ClickZ.com, and InternetRetailer.com.

Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day.  Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors.

Page views and time-per-person at current events and news websites also increased 103% and 61%, respectively, on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.

Check out historical unique audience data from Election Day 2004.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaweek, Media Life magazine, and Direct News.

According to Nielsen Online, CNN’s website drew more than 3.3 million unique visitors surfing the Web from home on November 4, 2004.

Meanwhile, MSNBC’s and Yahoo! News’ websites attracted unique audiences of more than 2.7 million and 2.6 million at home, respectively.

Working Americans also flocked to CNN’s, MSNBC’s, and Yahoo! News’ websites for 2004 Election Day updates from the office, according to Nielsen Online.

Nielsen Online recently analyzed the online presidential campaign, examining online advertising by the candidates, Web traffic and online video viewing at both campaign’s sites, and blog buzz related to the election.

Online Advertising
Senator Barack Obama’s campaign ramped up its online advertising in mid-September. Image-based ad impressions by the Obama campaign grew 202% from September 15 to 22 — and by another 94% by September 29.

In mid-October, Obama’s campaign also stepped up its sponsored link advertising, surpassing McCain’s sponsored link advertising for the first time.

In contrast, Sen. McCain’s online advertising push came in the weeks just before the Republican National Convention. McCain boosted image-based ad impressions by 261% between August 11 and 22, but after announcing Palin as his running mate, scaled back his display advertising. Between August 25 and September 7, McCain’s image-based online advertising dropped by 85%.

Web Traffic To Campaign Sites
Unique visitors to BarackObama.com outpaced those to JohnMcCain.com nearly two to one in September. The unique audience at BarackObama.com went from 6.1 million in August to 7.9 million in September (+31%).

During the same time period, JohnMcCain.com’s unique audience grew by 56% — from 2.7 million to 4.2 million unique visitors.

Video Viewing Via Campaign Websites
Total video streams at JohnMcCain.com surged by 175% in September — from 1.2 million streams in August to 3.2 million in September. Unique video viewers at the McCain’s site also increased 175% last month, from 475,000 viewers in August to 1.3 million in September.

In comparison, video streams at BarackObama.com saw less dramatic growth (+60%). Visitors to the site viewed 1.3 million streams in August, and 2.0 million streams in September. Unique viewers at Obama’s site also increased by 35% in September, from 824,000 viewers in August to 1.1 million last month.

Candidate Blogosphere Buzz
Online buzz about the two presidential candidates is increasing as Election Day approaches. In general, spikes in blog buzz during October coincided with the presidential and vice presidential debates on October 2, 7, and 15.

In the days leading up to and following Obama’s October 29 TV infomercial, online discussions of Obama have outpaced those referencing McCain.

Candidate Online Brand Associations
In online discussions, McCain and Obama are most closely associated with each other, followed by their running mates.

After that, McCain is most closely associated with “Sarah Palin,” “campaign,” and “debate.” Obama is also closely associated with “Sarah Palin,” as well as with “vote” and “president.”

Nielsen Online’s proprietary Brand Association Maps chart the attributes most closely associated with each candidate in online discussions. In general, BAM analysis provides an unaided, unsolicited, real-time barometer of consumer perceptions of and attitudes toward a topic discussed online.

Although McCain has tried to downplay several public relations challenges that occurred during his campaign, the terms “Katie Couric,” “Interview,” and “David Letterman” are as closely associated with him as “reform,” “economy,” and “Freddie Mac.”

Similarly, Obama’s efforts to distance himself from real estate developer Tony Rezko and Rev. Jeremiah Wright failed — in the online realm, at least. Obama is as closely associated with “Rezko,” “Plumber,” and “Wright” as he is with “economy,” “financial,” and “reform.”

View the full press release.

Read more about the media’s role in the election, in the latest issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in PC Magazine, Digital Media Wire, Media Daily News, and Media Post.

The NY Times’ website drew just over 20 million unique visitors in September — a 37% increase over unique traffic to the site last September.

Meanwhile, MSNBC saw 44% year over year growth, reaching 43.2 million unique visitors in September, according to Nielsen.

Surging interest in the U.S. presidential campaign likely drove growth for several U.S. news sites in September. 

The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska cracked Nielsen’s top 30 newspaper websites ranking for the first time, following a 928% jump in unique visitors over last September.  Sudden demand for news on Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in September may have driven that dramatic increase. 

Two politics-centric sites, Politico.com (+219%) and TheHuffingtonPost.com (+457%), also saw notably large year over year percentage growth in September.

Meanwhile, Boston.com’s 122% above average growth can perhaps be attributed to Autumn baseball fever in the Hub.

Overall, all but three of the top 30 online news outlets, and all but one of the top 30 newspaper websites, attracted larger online audiences in September 2008 than they did the prior September.

View the top 30 newspaper websites for September in Editor & Publisher.

View the top 30 online news outlets for September in Editor & Publisher.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the (Toronto) Globe and Mail.

The Beijing Olympics and the start of fall football season may have had something to do with the spike in traffic, Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted.

“With broad interest in the Olympics, and the ramp up of the college and professional football seasons, August was a busy month for online sports fans,” Gibs said.  “The Web offered 24/7 access to news, results and video, and fans demonstrated a healthy appetite for information about their favorite athletes and teams.”

Overall, unique traffic to sports sites from workplaces grew from 33.4 million unique visitors in August 2007 to 42.3 million this August.

Working women made up a significant portion of that traffic, according to Nielsen.  The number of female unique visitors who visited sports-related websites from work in August grew by 37% — from 12 million in August 2007 to 16.4 million this August.  In comparison, sports sites drew 25.8 million male unique visitors this August — up by just 21% from 21.4 million visitors in August 2007.

Yahoo! Sports was the most popular online sports destination, attracting 18.7 million unique visitors at workplaces in August — a 112% increase over traffic to the site last August.  ESPN and FOX Sports on MSN rounded out the top three, with 11.9 million and 7.7 million unique visitors, respectively, according to Nielsen. 

NBC’s custom website, NBC Olympics, also attracted significant workplace traffic in August, drawing 13.8 million unique visitors — or 20% of the active at work Web population. 

Among the top ten sites, Fantasy Sports Ventures Network — up 285% over August 2007 — showed the largest growth in unique workplace visitors.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Vancouver Sun.

Online Buzz
An analysis by Nielsen of the online discussions around more than 30 speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions showed Obama leading McCain, followed by Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton.  Vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, rounded out the top five most buzzworthy politicians.

Online Traffic
Web traffic to BarackObama.com increased 32% during the week of the Democratic National Convention.  During the same period, traffic to McCain’s website increased 242%, perhaps driven by the announcement, late in the week, of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Still, traffic to Obama’s site outpaced traffic to McCain’s site by a two-to-one ratio in the week ending August 31.

Online Advertising
John McCain’s campaign increased its online advertising in August, with image-based impressions up by 254% month-over-month and sponsored search links up by 43%.

Barack Obama’s campaign placed fewer online ad impressions during the same time period, reducing image-based impressions by 48% and sponsored links by 18%.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, The Boston Globe, Condé Nast Portfolio, and Silicon Alley Insider.

Meanwhile, Olympics fans who logged on to the Internet to follow the events around the clock set a new online precedent during the Games,  Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

Olympics Web Portals
In the U.S., NBC, an official broadcast partner for the event, drew an average of 18 million (week one) to 18.9 million unique visitors (week two) to its Olympics website during the Games.

Yahoo’s Olympics section drove more traffic than NBC’s site, but visitors to NBCOlympics.com spent twice as much time on the site and looked at three times more content than visitors to Yahoo’s Olympics site, according to Nielsen.

In China, approximately 85% of all Internet users who went online during the Games viewed Olympics content, according to ChinaRank, a website ranking platform hosted by the Internet Society of China and a Nielsen Online partner.

On average, 62 million unique browsers viewed Olympics content each day, and during the course of the Games, Chinese Internet users viewed more than 11.4 billion pages of content across 200 Olympics-related sites tracked by ChinaRank.

Sina Olympics was easily the most popular Olympics Web portal among Chinese Internet users, drawing an average of 30.9 million unique browsers each day.  Tencent Olympics (17.9 million average daily browsers) and Sohu Olympics (12.5 million average daily browers) were, respectively, the second- and third-ranked Chinese Olympics Web portals.

Online Video
NBC’s Olympics video site drew more than 1.2 million unique visitors per day, with dramatic traffic spikes around noon on work days.  Online video use was significant during the Beijing Games, but it did not appear to negatively affect TV viewing in the U.S., which remained at record levels during the Games.

Olympics Buzz
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps’ dramatic gold-medal winning streak triggered a barrage blog chatter.  Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt also wowed Olympics fans, but Phelps, who received five times more online buzz than Bolt, proved unbeatable in the blogsphere.

Online Advertising
U.S. Olympics team sponsors drove 9.9 billion online ad impressions before and during the Beijing Games (August 4 – 24).  AT&T, General Motors, and Bank of America were the top three advertisers, accounting for a combined total of more than 1 billion impressions.

View Nielsen’s complete Olympics online findings.

On Thursday, Nielsen joined the fray, releasing an analysis of the candidates’ online presence and buzz, their advertising campaigns, and TV viewership for past conventions. 

Online Audience and Videos Viewed
BarackObama.com’s unique audience was twice as large as JohnMcCain.com’s in both June and July 2008.  However, in July, the number of video streams on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled, possibly due to press coverage around Senator John McCain’s ad that compared Senator Barack Obama to Paris Hilton.

Blogosphere Buzz 
Senator Obama maintains the lead in overall buzz volume on blogs and message boards.  Between June 1 and August 17, Senator Obama was mentioned on blogs twice as frequently as Senator McCain.
 
Online Advertising
During the summer, the “Obama for America” image-based online advertising campaign increased fivefold — from 80 million impressions in June to 417 million impressions in July. 

TV Advertising
During June and July 2008, Senators Obama and McCain targeted their local TV spots at key battleground states including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.  Between June 4, when campaigning for the general election began, and August 1,  Senator McCain ran significantly fewer local TV spots (57,132) than Senator Obama (70,381), but placed more than twice as many national cable ads (526) as Senator Obama (142). 

TV Viewership: Past Conventions
Since 1960, only three Republican National Conventions have drawn more television households than the Democratic National Convention: 1972 (presumptive nominee Richard Nixon), 1976 (presumptive nominee Gerald Ford), and 2004 (presumptive nominee George W. Bush).

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TV Week, Multichannel News, and Media Post.