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Web-wise, a hot
new TV season
Traffic bump to network sites for returning shows
By Toni Fitzgerald
Viewership may be down for the first two
weeks of the new TV season but it’s still managing to spark a lot
of interest on the internet.
At-work traffic to several
broadcast networks and a few cable ones was way up last week,
especially to pages that highlight returning favorite shows.
That’s not a huge surprise,
considering there have been few breakouts hits among the new shows
introduced by the networks this year.
In fact, NBC, which had the
largest swell percentage-wise last week, has had no hot
introductions this year, with all of its new shows seeing dramatic
viewer losses in their second week.
But interest in the returning “Friends”
and the resurging “West Wing” were enough to drive a
week-to-week traffic increase of 77 percent for the week ending
Sept. 28, according to Nielsen//NetRatings figures.
At-work traffic increased to
767,000, a jump of 77 percent from the previous week’s 433,000.
ABC, the most improved
network during season premiere week, recorded a 65 percent ratings
increase versus the previous week, growing to 621,000 unique users.
One of its most popular pages
actually was for one of its more middling shows ratings-wise, cult
favorite “Alias.” Despite the show’s lack of ratings fire, it
had one of the most-talked-about season finales last spring, and no
doubt fans were trying to find any leaked tidbits leading up to the
Sept. 28 season opener.
The network with one of the
smallest audiences actually had one of the biggest online presences
last week. The WB had 890,000 unique surfers, up 64 percent from the
previous week.
The WB skews young, which
may explain why a network with one-third of NBC’s weekly
adults 18-49 average can attract so many online fans. The WB
audience is probably more comfortable and more familiar with the
internet and knows where to look for program information.
Even for the week ending
Sept. 21, the WB had 543,000 surfers, one-third more than the
average for ABC and NBC that week.
Popular shows drove traffic
to Discovery Channel and PBS sites, too. Discovery, the parent
company of TLC, increased by 66 percent week to week with an
audience of 629,000, most of whom accessed the TLC “Trading Spaces”
pages.
And PBS, which aired a
two-week special on “The Blues,” recorded a 59 percent uptick to
596,000. Thirty-one percent of those surfers accessed the “Blues”
page.
Meanwhile, the start of the
baseball playoffs sent fans to MLB.com, which recorded a 28 percent
week-to-week rise among at-home surfers to 1.7 million. Most fans
accessed the live scoreboard page or checked league standings as the
regular season drew to a close.
A sweepstakes at
Pedigree.com pushed a major traffic increase among at-home users.
The site bumped up 46 percent from the previous week to 361,000
users, 90 percent of whom logged on to the prize page offering a
trip to New York City.
|
Top 25 parent companies
Through
Sept. 28 |
|
#
|
Parent |
Unique
Audience
(000) |
Reach
% |
Time
spent per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
Microsoft |
51,059 |
51.9 |
0:35:20 |
|
2 |
AOL Time Warner |
47,731 |
48.6 |
1:59:28 |
|
3 |
Yahoo! |
41,142 |
41.9 |
0:46:46 |
|
4 |
Google |
18,819 |
19.1 |
0:07:02 |
|
5 |
eBay |
15,376 |
15.6 |
0:44:59 |
|
6 |
United States Government |
8,811 |
9.0 |
0:09:56 |
|
7 |
RealNetworks |
8,203 |
8.4 |
0:19:13 |
|
8 |
Terra Lycos |
7,969 |
8.1 |
0:06:21 |
|
9 |
Excite Network |
7,801 |
7.9 |
0:15:37 |
|
10 |
Amazon |
7,318 |
7.4 |
0:10:36 |
|
11 |
InterActiveCorp |
6,796 |
6.9 |
0:13:45 |
|
12 |
VeriSign |
6,337 |
6.5 |
0:01:04 |
|
13 |
About-Primedia |
6,274 |
6.4 |
0:06:36 |
|
14 |
Viacom International |
6,252 |
6.4 |
0:19:58 |
|
15 |
Walt Disney Internet
Group |
5,980 |
6.1 |
0:11:34 |
|
16 |
WhenU |
5,808 |
5.9 |
0:05:57 |
|
17 |
United Online |
5,344 |
5.4 |
0:56:31 |
|
18 |
EarthLink |
5,169 |
5.3 |
0:36:09 |
|
19 |
Landmark Communications |
5,109 |
5.2 |
0:05:31 |
|
20 |
Sharman Networks |
4,621 |
4.7 |
0:42:01 |
|
21 |
AWS Convergence
Technologies |
4,428 |
4.5 |
0:07:30 |
|
22 |
The Gator Corporation |
4,272 |
4.4 |
0:03:02 |
|
23 |
CNET Networks |
4,032 |
4.1 |
0:06:03 |
|
24 |
Electronic Arts |
3,941 |
4.0 |
1:11:45 |
|
25 |
Verizon Communications |
3,898 |
4.0 |
0:12:20 |
|
Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top
25 brands
Through
Sept. 28 |
|
#
|
Parent |
Unique
Audience (000) |
Reach % |
Time
spent
per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
MSN |
43,197 |
43.9 |
0:33:31 |
|
2 |
Yahoo! |
41,126 |
41.8 |
0:46:45 |
|
3 |
AOL |
37,675 |
38.3 |
2:21:57 |
|
4 |
Microsoft |
34,300 |
34.9 |
0:10:21 |
|
5 |
Google |
18,591 |
18.9 |
0:06:57 |
|
6 |
eBay |
14,922 |
15.2 |
0:43:41 |
|
7 |
Real |
8,103 |
8.2 |
0:19:15 |
|
8 |
Lycos Network |
7,578 |
7.7 |
0:06:02 |
|
9 |
Amazon |
6,582 |
6.7 |
0:10:02 |
|
10 |
Netscape |
6,300 |
6.4 |
0:11:08 |
|
11 |
VeriSign |
6,045 |
6.2 |
0:00:57 |
|
12 |
About Network |
5,795 |
5.9 |
0:06:33 |
|
13 |
WhenU |
5,465 |
5.6 |
0:06:16 |
|
14 |
Weather Channel |
4,958 |
5.0 |
0:05:16 |
|
15 |
KaZaA |
4,621 |
4.7 |
0:42:01 |
|
16 |
EarthLink |
4,533 |
4.6 |
0:39:53 |
|
17 |
WeatherBug.com |
4,406 |
4.5 |
0:07:32 |
|
18 |
CNN |
4,266 |
4.3 |
0:09:34 |
|
19 |
MapQuest |
4,258 |
4.3 |
0:06:39 |
|
20 |
Gator Network |
4,107 |
4.2 |
0:03:06 |
|
21 |
EA Online |
3,941 |
4.0 |
1:11:45 |
|
22 |
Apple |
3,745 |
3.8 |
0:03:44 |
|
23 |
AT&T |
3,460 |
3.5 |
0:16:00 |
|
24 |
Comcast |
3,418 |
3.5 |
0:14:59 |
|
25 |
McAfee |
3,398 |
3.5 |
0:04:47 |
|
Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top 25 advertisers
(excludes house ads)
Through Sept. 28 |
|
#
|
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Expertcity, Inc. |
1,606,058 |
|
2 |
GUS Plc |
1,553,210 |
|
3 |
NetFlix, Inc. |
653,991 |
|
4 |
Intuit, Inc. |
647,703 |
|
5 |
Dell Computer
Corporation |
578,595 |
|
6 |
InterActiveCorp |
546,944 |
|
7 |
Citigroup Inc. |
545,352 |
|
8 |
AOL Time Warner Inc. |
541,700 |
|
9 |
Ameriquest Mortgage
Company |
513,009 |
|
10 |
Ameritrade Holding
Corporation |
494,303 |
|
11 |
Classmates Online, Inc. |
483,588 |
|
12 |
Bank One Corporation |
435,395 |
|
13 |
Johnson & Johnson |
330,375 |
|
14 |
Apollo Group, Inc. |
314,466 |
|
15 |
AT&T Wireless
Services, Inc. |
292,588 |
|
16 |
CoolSavings, Inc. |
285,032 |
|
17 |
Amazon.com, Inc. |
274,357 |
|
18 |
Sabre Holdings Inc. |
266,404 |
|
19 |
Scottrade, Inc. |
263,297 |
|
20 |
Orbitz |
252,756 |
|
21 |
SBC Communications, Inc. |
249,800 |
|
22 |
UAL Corporation |
248,294 |
|
23 |
General Motors
Corporation |
234,603 |
|
24 |
Monster Worldwide, Inc. |
225,089 |
|
25 |
CreditGift.com |
221,660 |
|
Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance |
|
Top 25 advertising sites
(excludes
house ads)
Through Sept. 28 |
|
#
|
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Yahoo! |
10,160,786 |
|
2 |
MSN |
3,472,295 |
|
3 |
iWon |
866,104 |
|
4 |
eBay |
862,733 |
|
5 |
ESPN.com |
543,216 |
|
6 |
Netscape |
520,109 |
|
7 |
MSNBC |
411,584 |
|
8 |
Excite |
387,626 |
|
9 |
CNN |
345,570 |
|
10 |
Classmates |
311,252 |
|
11 |
Juno |
307,401 |
|
12 |
The Weather Channel |
296,223 |
|
13 |
AOL.com |
280,779 |
|
14 |
CBS SportsLine |
273,928 |
|
15 |
NetZero |
243,241 |
|
16 |
The New York Times |
236,248 |
|
17 |
Pogo |
216,425 |
|
18 |
CBS MarketWatch |
197,700 |
|
19 |
MLB.com |
193,727 |
|
20 |
EarthLink |
163,277 |
|
21 |
Realtor.com |
159,259 |
|
22 |
AT&T Worldnet |
147,262 |
|
23 |
Lycos |
132,775 |
|
24 |
BlackPlanet.com |
128,354 |
|
25 |
NFL.com |
126,097 |
|
Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance |
|
Average use
Through
Sept. 28 |
|
|
|
Current
Week |
Last Week |
% Change |
|
Number of Sessions/Visits per
Week |
9 |
9 |
0 |
|
Number of Domains Visited per
Week |
22 |
22 |
0 |
|
Time Spent per Week |
7:50:11 |
7:40:57 |
2 |
|
Time Spent During Web Visit |
0:32:48 |
0:32:46 |
0.1 |
|
Active Digital Media Universe |
98,673,647 |
98,487,239 |
0.19 |
|
Current Digital Media Universe
Estimate |
184,448,033 |
184,448,433 |
0 |
|
Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
October
9, 2003©
2003 Media Life
-
Toni Fitzgerald is a staff writer for
Media Life.
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