The Nielsen Company's Recap of the 2008 Academy Awards

New York, NY, February 29, 2008- The Nielsen Company today released an analysis of viewing and advertising trends from the 80th Academy Awards.  The highlights include:

• ADVERTISING: J.C. Penney’s American Living Home Furnishings advertisement at 10:14 p.m. was the highest rated commercial minute of the show.   In all, 43 national advertisements aired this year, with L’Oreal and Coca-Cola tied as the top advertisers.
  
  

• TELEVISION: This year’s Oscars telecast on the ABC Network attracted 32 million U.S. viewers.  Among the ten largest local markets, the highest ratings were in New York and the lowest were in Houston.
  
  

• DVR: Of the 32 million total viewers, 2 million people chose to watch the Oscars later the same evening via digital video recorders.
  
  

• ONLINE: Oscars buzz in the blogosphere and traffic to Oscars-related Web sites shot up immediately after the February 24 awards telecast.
  
  (For all tables, charts, and graphs related to this release, please view Full PDF Download of release).
  

Advertising Trends
Nielsen Monitor-Plus, Nielsen’s advertising intelligence service, analyzed advertising for the 2008 Academy Awards telecast and found that the total number of commercial minutes fell from 24 minutes in 2007 to 23 minutes during this year’s show.  In all, 43 national advertisements aired this year, continuing a trend of fewer commercials.

Top-Rated Commercials
The J.C. Penney American Living Home Furnishings advertisement that ran at 10:14 p.m. was the most watched national commercial during this year’s Academy Awards (See Table 1).  It had a rating of 11.3, which includes the show’s live audience and viewing that was recorded and played back on digital video recorders (DVRs) during the same evening.
(Please refer to Table 1: "Top-Rated National Commercials" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

Top Advertisers
L’Oreal and Coca-Cola, which ranked among last year’s leading Oscars advertisers, were the top national advertisers for the 2008 telecast, with 3½ minutes of commercial time each.  General Motors, the number one advertiser for the 2006 and 2007 show, slipped to third place this year—where it tied with J.C. Penney (See Table 2).  In the past three Academy Awards broadcasts, these four companies have claimed the top advertising slots.
(Please refer to Table 2: "2008 Top National Advertisers" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

Beyond the top four, McDonald’s, which aired two 30-second spots this year, and American Express, which aired two 60-second spots, hold the distinction of being the only two companies that have advertised during the last 15 Academy Awards telecasts.

National Commercial Minutes
Over the past five years, the number of national commercial minutes in the Academy Awards telecast reached a high of 27½ minutes in 2005 (See Table 3).  Since then, commercial time has declined sharply, shrinking to just 24 minutes in 2007.  This year marked a new low: just 23 minutes of commercials.
(Please refer to Table 3: "Commercial Minutes" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

Promotional Announcements
ABC aired nine promotional announcements, spanning 3 minutes and 50 seconds, during this year’s telecast.  All but two of the promos were for primetime programs, including Eli Stone, Oprah’s Big Give, and Dancing with the Stars. 

Viewing the Commercials
To view full-motion commercials, storyboards and ratings from Academy Awards telecasts, visit Nielsen’s Monitor-Plus website at https://www.nielsenmedia.com/monitorplus/academyawards.

Television Viewership
This year, 30 million Americans watched the Academy Awards live on the ABC Network, while an additional 2 million people viewed the telecast later in the same evening on DVR, Nielsen Media Research reports (See Table 4).  The telecast averaged an 18.7 household rating.
(Please refer to Table 4: "Television Ratings for Academy Awards Telecasts" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

In the ten largest local U.S. markets, 8.2 million households tuned in to watch the Oscars.  Among these, New York received the highest overall local rating this year (29.7), while Houston received the lowest (16.3).  See Table 5: "Top 10 Local Market Ratings for 2008 Academy Awards Telecast" in Full PDF Download of release for more details.

Viewer Demographics
People in upper to upper-middle income brackets are almost twice as likely to watch the Oscars telecast, according to Claritas, Nielsen’s marketing research unit.  Of this group, a majority are women at least 35 years old, college educated, and living in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, or Pacific regions of the U.S., Spectra, Nielsen’s lifestyle measurement service reports.

Although detailed demographic information about 2008 Academy Awards viewers is not yet available, data from Nielsen Media Research indicates that white viewers accounted for 86% of the 32 million people who tuned in for the show, while Hispanic and African-American viewers each accounted for approximately 7% of the total audience.

Online Usage
After the Academy Awards, fans flocked online to check out celebrities’ red carpet fashions and review who had won Hollywood’s biggest prizes.  According to Nielsen Online, traffic to Yahoo’s Oscars Web site, oscars.movies.yahoo.com, increased 201% the day after the telecast, from 751,000 unique visitors on the day of the Oscars to 2.3 million unique visitors on the following day, Monday, February 25.

Overall, however, Web traffic to Oscar-related sites on the day after the event declined collectively by 26% this year—from 3.3 million unique visitors on post-Oscars Monday in 2007 to 2.4 million unique visitors on the same day in 2008.

Blogosphere Buzz
Nielsen Online monitored content on approximately 70 million blogs before, during, and after the Academy Awards.  The graph below shows the percentage of these blogs that mentioned the Academy Awards during the past two months.  

Immediately following the Academy Awards telecast on February 24, online conversations about the event shot up 500% above the last spike in Oscars-related blogging that occurred on January 22, when the award nominations were announced.  Blog discussions following Sunday’s awards telecast focused on post-show reactions, including thoughts on the night’s winners and losers, as well as host Jon Stewart’s performance.
(Please refer to Chart: "Percent of All Blog Posts " in Full PDF Download version of release.)

Consumer Buzz
Nearly 600 members of The Nielsen Company’s online, consumer-driven opinion network, Hey! Nielsen (www.heynielsen.com), took a stab at predicting this year’s Oscar winners.  Their votes were mostly on target: they accurately predicted the winners in the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director categories (See Table 6).  But like most of the country and many Hollywood pundits, they were surprised by Marion Cotillard’s win in the Best Actress category and Tilda Swinton’s Best Supporting Actress victory.
(Please refer to Table 6: " Hey! Nielsen Academy Award Winner Predictions" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com.

Media Contacts

Nielsen Online: Suzy Bausch 408.941.2965 or Sandra Parrelli 646.654.7772
Nielsen Monitor-Plus: Jamillah Wright, 646.654.8357
Nielsen Media Research: Anne Saini, 646.654.8691 
Hey! Nielsen: Karen Gyimesi, 646.654.8631

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