As you know, I can’t enough Nielsen stats lately.  Here’s some interesting new information Nielsen produced illustrating TV viewership and online activity on Election Day.  This information was used to generate an understanding of where individuals got their Election coverage and gathered their news.  

According to Nielsen, “By combining television and Internet samples through a process known as fusion, Nielsen provides new data showing how the two media worked together to meet the demand for election news updates.”

Nielsen’s Total Estimate of Individual Activity

A total of 163.6 million adults sought election coverage from either television or the Internet — or both. This shows the unduplicated or cumulative audience that used one or the other medium for at least one minute.

158.3 million watched Election Day coverage on television. Of those, 134.8 million only watched TV coverage.

28.8 million used the Internet to get Election Day coverage from major news websites. Of those, 5.2 million only used the Internet for election coverage.

23.6 million got Election Day coverage from both TV and the Internet. Of these, 48% of these accessed online Election Day coverage only while at work; 42% got their online coverage only at home; and 10% checked online coverage both at home and at work.

Demographic Breakdown

From an overall reach perspective, adults aged 50+ were more likely than younger adults to seek Election Day news from TV or Internet — 80% of these adults were reached by one or the other medium, compared to 60% for 18-34s and 76% for 35-49s.

The demographic difference between the TV audience and the online audience wasn’t “younger” versus “older” — but rather, “middle-aged” versus “older.”

Younger adults between the ages of 18-34 made up about a quarter of the audience for both television and the Internet, but from there online coverage skewed younger than television:

-Adults 18-34 were 24.8% of the TV audience and 24.4% of the online audience.

-Adults 35-49 made up 40.7% of the online audience, but only 29.5% of the TV audience.

-Adults over the age of 50 made up 46% of the TV audience and accounted for 35% of the Internet users.

In addition, there are decided differences in demographic composition, based on whether people accessed election coverage online only, on TV only, or both on TV and online:

-Internet Only Users were the youngest: 34.5% were aged 18-34, compared to 34.0% for 35-49 and 31.5% for 50+.

-TV Only Users were the oldest: 25.3% were aged 18-34, 27.3% were aged 35-49, 47.4% were 50+.

-People who accessed Election coverage on both TV and online skewed 35-49: 22.2% were aged 18-34, 42.2% were 35-49, 35.6% were 50+.

Convergence Panel Results

A new Nielsen sample tracks both Internet and television usage with a single sample, making it possible to see how people used the two media simultaneously to check Election Day results.  This “convergence panel” shows that while simultaneous use of TV and Internet for Election Day coverage was limited, TV and online news outlets drew larger than average audiences:

-Only 1% of TV viewers on Election Night were simultaneously searching news websites — three times greater than the prior Tuesday night.

-On the other hand, 25.5% of news website visitors on Election Night were also watching TV election coverage — 2.5 times greater than the normal simultaneous traffic.

A few months ago I came to the conclusion that the cable news networks (FNC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC) would do considerably well during this presidential season – outperforming 2004 and general expectations.  I also made the assumption that the cable news networks would do even better during the course of both Party conventions.  Now, I’m not claiming that these predictions were anything earth shattering, as anyone who pays attention to voter viewing habits, election coverage and ratings probably could have come to the same conclusion a few months ago as well.

However, I was so sure of this magnetic effect of viewership to the cable networks that I made several arguments in the past few weeks to clients and buyers to consider putting much more emphasis into purchasing airtime during nightly convention action.

So it does warm my heart to see hard data reaffirming my prediction.

In a story posted today, Matea Gold of the L.A. Times reported a small piece on the convention viewership draw to broadcast and the cable networks.

The opening night of the Democratic National Convention drew more than 22 million TV viewers, a 20% larger audience than in 2004, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC drew the most viewers, pulling an average of 4.71 million viewers for its hour long special anchored by Brian Williams, up 4% from four years ago.

Overall, the picture was even rosier for cable news networks, whose decision to devote nearly all their programming to convention coverage paid off.

CNN averaged 4.27 million viewers, beating the broadcast networks for the first time with its convention coverage.

All three posted major gains over 2004. 

There are a few reasons for the substantial increase that I predicted.  Here are a few supporting points – some are more obvious than others:

Check out after the jump

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