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NielsenMediaResearch posts

Super Bowl may be the most watched telecast ever

Posted Feb 4th 2008 1:45PM by Jonathan Berr (RSS feed)
Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, News Corp'B' (NWS), Business of Sports, Headline News

Last night's Super Bowl may have been the most watched telecast ever, according to preliminary data compiled by Nielsen Media Research.

Ratings for the contest between the New York Giants and New England Patriots were up 9% from last year. Figures for the number of viewers weren't immediately available from Nielsen. The most watched program of all time was the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H." Until now, the most-watched Super Bowl was in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Shares of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), whose Fox Network broadcast last night's game, are down 18% over the past year as Wall Street worried that Rupert Murdoch's media empire would be hurt by a slowdown in advertising spending and the Hollywod writers' strike.

Continue reading Super Bowl may be the most watched telecast ever

Coke is tops in product placement

Posted Dec 10th 2007 10:00AM by Jonathan Berr (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and Services, Coca-Cola (KO), Marketing and Advertising

In the first six months of this year, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) was mentioned on network television 3,054 times in product placements, according to Nielsen data cited by the New York Times.

Think about it: every time Paula Abdul gulps down a Coke -- at least that's what it says on the can -- on American Idol, that's put on the tab of the Atlanta-based company. Neither is it coincidental when a brand is mentioned on shows like Big Love, American Dad or Scrubs.

Welcome to the post-commercial world. The theory is that the 30-second spot is so 2001 and that people -- particularly the young ones advertisers want to attract -- are savvy enough to avoid most advertising. That's why product placements are soaring.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, for one, is concerned that the public may not always be aware that someone is trying to sell them something. That concern is justified when it comes to children who are bombarded with show after show that are just excuses to sell them crap.

Unfortunately, though, the era of product placements has only begun.