Consumer Guide for Today's Media

The Nielson Monitoring Company has released the figures from the 2008 Academy Awards. The Awards show was under scrutiny due to the Writers Strike, but was able to be aired after the recent agreement was made. The awards show took top rank according to the Nielsen Monitoring Company pulling in approximately 32 million viewers. This edged American Idol which had approximately 29 million viewers for its Tuesday and Wednesday program. The red carpet came in fifth overall for the week of February 18 having 21.5 million viewers. Compared to past Academy Awards shows, this was the lowest viewing in the past 8 years. Last year’s show drew in 40 million viewers with the top honors of 43 million viewers who watched being awarded to the 2004 and 2001 shows. Did the Oscars lose some of its allure due to the writer’s strike? Or is America finally tuning out of watching celebrities grace the red carpet?

2 million of the 32 million viewers of the Oscars chose to watch the show after it had been aired on their DVR. But the DVR didn’t have to forward through too many commercials. The amount of national commercial minutes in the Awards show actually has lowered to a new low of just 23 minutes of commercials. This is in sharp comparison the high of 27.5 minutes of commercial time in 2005. Out of the advertisers, L’Oreal and Coca-Cola took top honors for national advertisers. J.C. Penney who had the best ad tied in third place with General Motors.

The real buzz of the awards of the wards show was the online traffic the days following. While Yahoo’s Oscars Web site noticed an increase of 201% the day following, this was a decline by over 26% from years past in the amount of unique visitors to the sight. Blogging rose to an outstanding 500% more traffic and posts then the days prior to the show. Overall, Nielsen monitored over 70 million blogs over the span of time leading up to and after the Oscars. With the increase in blogging, the question has to be asked if people will tune out of the show and tune into the internet where they can receive instant feed back of who’s wearing what, who said what, and who surprised everyone with a win. Despite decreasing the overall commercial time, more Americans find it easier to fast forward what they don't want to see. With the internet, it makes fast forwarding even easier. With a click of the mouse, you can see your favorite actors and movies and know immediately how they faired. Whether it’s the increase of internet usage or the anguish of the writer’s strike that made viewers tune out will have to wait and be determined next year. Maybe America is simply tired of knowing who is wearing what and making their own decisions on what movies, shows, and music they like.