2019 Oscars: 10% Higher Viewers, Slightly More In Ad Revenues

ABC’s telecast of the Oscars posted some improvements this year, in terms of viewership and national advertising dollars.

Nielsen preliminary ratings for the film event took in 10% more (3.1 million) viewers, totaling 29.6 million. Among 18-49 viewers -- the demographic many advertisers still desire -- it posted a 7.7 rating, up 13% over last year’s 6.8 rating.

Still, TV viewership of the entire event ranked as the second-lowest ever. The first was the Oscars of a year ago.

“The Oscars” was estimated to have pulled more than $152 million in national TV advertising -- slightly higher than the $149 million Kantar Media says the event took in a year ago.

Big advertisers this year included Walmart, Verizon, Cadillac, Rolex, Samsung Mobile, Marriott, McDonald’s, Apple iPhone, Google Phones, Google Home, and Geico. It has been reported some advertisers paid as much as $2.6 million for a 30-second commercial.

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ABC says social media activity was up 7% to 17.7 million total social interactions, with Twitter taking a 76% share, Instagram at 20%; and Facebook at 4%.

Samba TV says the Oscars were seen in 14.3 million U.S. homes, down 0.7% from a year ago. A viewer is defined as having watched at least five cumulative minutes of the broadcast.

The TV measurement company says that on a comparative basis to overall U.S. TV viewing, big markets such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York over-indexed in Oscar viewers. Major markets under the national average included Orlando, Charlotte, Raleigh, Cleveland and St. Louis.

Looking at other awards shows this season, the Grammys posted a Nielsen 19.9 million viewers and the Golden Globes took in 18.6 million viewers.

2 comments about "2019 Oscars: 10% Higher Viewers, Slightly More In Ad Revenues".
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  1. R. M. from self, February 26, 2019 at 3:35 p.m.

    Please add relevant definitions to all research data. Please define, "ABC’s telecast" in terms of channels in/ex cluded from the data. Please define "TV viewership" in terms of Live only? (or cume) and what channels= "TV".  Thank you.

  2. John Grono from GAP Research replied, February 26, 2019 at 5:08 p.m.

    R.M. I'll have a crack from Downunder, as basically TV measurement is conducted to the same parameters globally.

    1. "ABC's telecast" would in all probablity be the whole duration from the start of the programme to the end of the production credits.   It would include commercial breaks as well.   Networks can "game" this by segmenting by having "Oscar's - Red Carpet", "Oscars - The Winner Announced" etc.

    2. Regarding channels, I don't have a broadcast list.   If broadcast on secondary channels the data can be reported on a "network" basis - but this feels like it is a channel basis.

    3. Viewership is probably on an "As Live" basis (aka "Overnight").   That is, if someone is viewing via a digital PVR, the phone rings, they hit pause but resuming viewing 5 minutes later that is considered the same as live viewing.

    4. TV ratings are reported as 'Average Minute Audience.   Cume (reach) can be reported separately but must be labelled as such.

    Apologies to anyone in the US if I have made any poor assumptions - please feel free to correct my comments as needs be.

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