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Debate Comparisons, Wireless Households, and Employment Advertisers: Data Potpourri
by Jack Loechner, Monday, September 29, 2008 8:15 AM
Debate Comparisons, Wireless Households, and Employment Advertisers: Data PotpourriWith the U.S. financial crisis hanging in the balance, the first debate between Barack Obama and John
McCain has taken on unusual importance. But, how did this first presidential duel of the 2008 election compare with the most-watched debates of the last half-century? Compare the 57 million who
watched Friday night with TV audiences since 1976, as collected by Nielsen Media Research. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan's 1980 debate claimed the largest television audience since 1976,
the first year that Nielsen collected TV viewership data for presidential debates. George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot's 1992 debate, and Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter's 1976
debate, round out the top three. George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis's 1988 debates and Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale's 1984 debates also made the top 10. Presidential Debate Audience Rankings (millions)Rank Year Network
Date Candidates Viewers(Millions) 1 1980 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 28
Carter - Reagan 80.6 2 1992 ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN Oct. 15 Bush - Clinton - Perot 69.9 3 1976 ABC, CBS, NBC Sept. 23 Ford - Carter 69.7 4 1988 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 13 Bush - Dukakis 67.3 5 1984 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 21 Reagan - Mondale 67.3 6 1992 ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN Oct. 19 Bush - Clinton - Perot 66.9 7 1988 ABC, CBS, NBC Sept. 25
Bush - Dukakis 65.1 8 1984 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 7 Reagan - Mondale 65.1 9 1976 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 6 Ford - Carter 63.9 10 1976 ABC, CBS, NBC Oct. 22 Ford - Carter 62.7 Source: Nielsen Media Research,
September 2008 (There were no televised Presidential debates for the years 1972, 1968, and 1964.) For the complete release, please visit Nielsen here. And, a new study from The Nielsen Company says that more than 20 million U.S. telephone households
(17 percent) are wireless substitutors-homes without landlines that rely solely on a mobile phone for their home telecommunications. As the U.S. economy tightens and consumers look for ways
to cut household spending, many are eyeing that landline phone bill, which averages $40 per month per landline household. In addition to the universe of U.S. wireless substitutors, Nielsen's
study reports that:
- U.S. cord cutters tend to have lower income-levels-59 percent have household incomes of $40,000 or less
- Smaller households, with just one or two
residents, are more likely to cut the cord than larger households
- Moving or changing jobs are the biggest life events associated with cord cutting: 31 percent of cord cutters
moved prior to cord cutting and 22 percent changed jobs
- Wireless substitutors tend to use their mobile phones more than their landline peers, 45 percent more per phone, but
still save an average $33 per month in a household of one subscriber, less $6.69 for each additional wireless resident, when they cut the cord
Alison LeBreton, vice president
of client services for Nielsen Mobile, said "As wireless network quality improves and unlimited calling becomes increasingly pervasive, we expect the trend toward wireless substitution to
continue... " But wireless substitution doesn't work for everyone, says the report. Ten percent of landline phone customers have experimented with wireless-only in their
household, but then returned to landline service. Nielsen reports that needing a landline for another service (security system, satellite TV, pay-per-view, fax machine, etc.) is the primary
reason people mend the cord. For
the full paper, "Call My Cell: Wireless Substitution in the United States," please go here.
Finally, the top Online sites handling the Employment Segment in the Web Media Industry in mid-September:
Top 20 Advertisers in the Web Media Industry, Employment Segment (Week
ending September 14, 2008 US, Home and Work)
CompanyImpressions
(000)Share of all Impressions Monster Worldwide Inc.
459,536 82.9% CareerBuilder LLC 54,419 9.8% DevelopYourCareer.com
8,372 1.5% Careerone 5,598
1.0% Deutsche Telekom AG 3,595 0.6% Sigma Assessment Systems Inc. 3,072 0.6% Interview Mastery.com 2,873
0.5% Yahoo! Inc. 2,768 0.5%
Dice.com Inc. 2,247 0.4%
SnagAJob.com Inc. 1,811 0.3% techcareers.com 1,217 0.2%
Cox Search LLC. 1,164 0.2%
CareerPath.com 1,070 0.2% Trader Publishing
Company 622 0.1% ChevronTexaco Corporation
574 0.1% Central Florida Employment Council
407 0.1% indeed 318 0.1% Net-Temps Inc. 294 0.1% VACareers.com 287
0.1% Tenet Healthcare Corporation 253
0.0% Total 554,336 100.0%
Source:Nielsen Online, AdRelevance