May 2012 NIELSEN SPORTS INSIGHTS The first quarter of 2012 continued to demonstrate the phenomenal drawing power of sports content. The NY Giants' Super Bowl win set yet another TV viewership record with an audience of 111.3 million, and exciting moments from the past few months continued to keep sports fans engaged- -including Linsanity, Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats, Bubba Watson at Augusta and the White Sox Philip Humber's perfect game. Sports programming continues to reach new heights from a media spend perspective. In the first quarter of 2012, brands spent over $3 billion on national sports television across network & cable to reach this extremely passionate audience, up 9 percent ($2.76B) from the first quarter of 2011. As the number of devices used by fans to access sports content continues to multiply, Nielsen's "FANAYLYTICS" is committed to tracking fan behavior and media consumption across every screen. One piece of feedback we received was to offer more insights & intelligence about the Hispanic sports fan, so we have featured Hispanic Highlights throughout this edition of our newsletter. We hope you enjoy these highlights from across Nielsen's wealth of consumer and media insights as we strive to give you a deeper understanding of the sports fan. Sincerely, Inside this issue: NHL Cover NASCAR 2-3 NCAA Basketball 3-4 MLB 5 NBA 6 PGA 7 NFL 8 Hispanic Highlights 9 Stephen Master Vice President of Sports, Nielsen Stephen.Master@nielsen.com NHL Playoff First Round Reaches New Heights For the first time ever, the first round of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs featured every single playoff game on national television in the U.S. In a comprehensive analysis, Nielsen took a look at how the unique audience built day by day with games nationally broadcast games across NBC Sports, CNBC and NBC as well as locally on the teams' Regional Sports Networks. The abundance of overtime games and lengthy series resulted in record audiences tuning into the Conference Quarter Finals. Through the first round of the playoffs, a combined 39.1 million viewers watched at least a portion of one game, up 24 percent from last year's first round (31.5 million). Fun Facts: NHL fans enjoy the outdoors Aside from following their favorite teams during the NHL playoffs, hockey fans visiting NHL.com are also 25 percent more likely to have a convertible sports car, 75 percent more likely to be a snowboarder and 44 percent more likely to hike/backpack than the general population. Source: @ Plan data through 4th quarter 2011
NASCAR: It's all about FAN ENGAGEMENT! This year's edition of the Daytona 500, the "Super Bowl" of motorsports, was considered one of the strangest races to date, with rain delays on February 26 forcing NASCAR to postpone the race for the first time ever to noon the following day, and then into primetime on FOX. The Daytona 500 saw an increase in fan engagement across various media platforms. There was more online chatter and more web and mobile traffic connected to the biggest motorsport event of the year; all happening throughout the entire weekend of the race. In addition, a higher percentage of adult viewers remembered the ads than in 2011. Among the top recalled ads were Mountain Dew, Toyota and Sprint. Fans ramped up their social media voice by discussing a variety of topics to help increase the social media buzz. Tide and Service Master were winners for cleaning up Juan Pablo Montoy's crash, which increased their brand coverage across multiple platforms. Brad Keselowski tweeting pics from his car increased his Twitter following by thousands, and NASCAR overall saw a big lift as social media kept fans engaged over the three days. From TV to Online People who watched the 2012 Daytona 500 were driven to FOXSports.com, with 587,000 NASCAR viewers visiting the website the day after the Daytona 500 race, which more than doubled last year (271,000). Source: Nielsen National TV Toolbox; P2+ LiveSD
NASCAR (continued) NASCAR fans are getting their news across every screen People visiting NASCAR.com mobile web using their mobile devices saw an increase from 2011. Hispanic Highlight There were 73,000 average Spanish-speaking viewers who watched the 2012 Daytona 500 on FOX, up 55 percent from 2011 (47,000). NCAA March Madness NCAA fans are engaging more on their mobile screens The third screen has become increasingly more prevalent as a way to connect with fans of March Madness; mobile usage on NCAA-related sites was up 147 percent over last year. App usage is also gaining major traction, with 1.9 million active users of NCAA March Madness related apps in 2012. Hispanic Highlight There were 6.9 million viewers of Hispanic origin who watched at least a portion of the NCAA Tournament on CBS and Turner in 2012. The average age for the Hispanic viewer during the 2012 NCAA Tournament was 39, lower than both African-American and White viewers, who had a median age of 44 and 48, respectively.
NCAA March Madness (continued) Southeast leading the nation in TV viewership The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals road to the 2012 NCAA Final Four helped the Louisville DMA rank # 1 among household rating. Although three of the Final Four teams' home markets are located in the East Central territory, including Louisville, which had the highest TV ratings of any market among households, the Southeast territory had more average viewers in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Kansas City and Columbus were also among the top rated markets throughout the tournament. During the 2012 NCAA basketball tournament, viewers tuned in early and often to follow their brackets. The 2012 NCAA tournament on CBS and Turner had 101.9 million viewers who watched at least a portion of one of the 67 games. More than half of all viewers had tuned in during the first round.
MLB: Who is Buzzing and Who is Watching The MLB season is off to a solid start. Many of the 2011 playoff teams maintained high local TV ratings through the month of April. New York and Boston continue to dominate the social media sphere, as they took up a solid share of MLB team-related conversations online through first quarter 2012. Dallas Becoming a Baseball Town? With the Texas Rangers coming off back-to-back World Series appearances, the popularity of the team has hit an all-time high in Dallas-Fort Worth. On April 9th, the Rangers defeated the Seattle Mariners 11-5 and delivered the team's highest rated game of all-time on FOX Sports Southwest. The game averaged 274,000 households, which delivered a 10.7 household rating in the market. Through the first three weeks of the 2012 season, the Rangers games on FOX Sports Southwest averaged a 7.3 household rating, up 87 percent over last year's season average of a 3.9. Source: Arianna Hispanic Highlight Among Hispanics, Derek Jeter has the highest N-Score (273) of any MLB player. Jorge Posada (79), Mariano Rivera (72), Prince Fielder (61) and Mark Teixeira (57) rounded out the top five. (No, it s not a Yankees scorecard!) Source: Nielsen/E-Poll NScore
NBA viewership among Hispanic is growing Coming out of the lockout, NBA's overall viewership is up in 2012. Hispanics made up 12 percent of regular season total viewership, an increase of 20 percent over the 2010-11 season. ENE-BE-A "Noche Latina" (March 2012) The seven commemorative games deemed "Noche Latina" ("Latin Night") averaged 330,000 Hispanic viewers, 10 percent more than all other NBA games. The Heat vs. Lakers matchup on March 4th drew in the most Hispanics: 1.0 million or 15 percent of the total audience. Source: Nielsen National TV Toolbox-Hispanic Origin; P2+ LiveSD; Hispanic Sample-Total US No surprise after being featured in Vogue magazine, Dwyane Wade soars with style off the court; perhaps he gets fashion tips from the Miami Heat s team president, Pat Riley. Source: Nielsen/E-Poll N-Score: At least 10 percent awareness
PGA: Bubba s Buzz Not only did 11 million viewers tune into the final two days of the 2012 Masters to witness Bubba Watson win, consumers also took to social media to discuss the left-hander during the tournament.
NFL Draft: First few minutes begins with Luck With the first pick of the 2012 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts selected quarterback Andrew Luck. More than 6.1 million total viewers watched this pick on ESPN and another 1.6 million watched on NFL Network. Hispanic Highlight Hispanic viewership for the NFL Draft has grown over the past five years. On average, 492,000 viewers of Hispanic origin watched the first round of the NFL Draft on ESPN, up 96 percent since 2008. Source: Nielsen National TV Toolbox; P2+ LiveSD
Hispanic Highlights Across Nielsen Upcoming Webinar on the State of the Hispanic Consumer: Tuesday, May 22 at 12pm EDT Join us for an interesting and engaging webinar that focuses on the Hispanic consumer representing $1 trillion in buying power. The presentation is based upon the comprehensive, recently-released Nielsen report, State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative, which is part of the Nielsen "Diverse Intelligence Insight Series." Nielsen subject matter experts will share findings that challenge commonly held perceptions and will reveal actionable insights on culture and population trends, purchasing behavior, media consumption and more. Click here for the recently released report: State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative Copyright 2012 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen and the Nielsen logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of CZT/ACN Trademarks, L.L.C. Nielsen