• November 6, 2008

Thanks in part to Tina Fey's send-up of Sarah Palin, online video viewers at NBC.com in September jumped more than 300% to 5.5 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen Online.

The video audiences of the four broadcast networks more than tripled on average in September through a combination of series and season premieres, political news and parodies and coverage of the financial crisis, Nielsen said. While the SNL clips of Fey impersonating Palin delivered the biggest audience boost to NBC.com, ABC.com increased 105%, Fox 165% and CBS, 38%.

In terms of time spent, Fox led the way with 114 minutes compared to 48.4 for CBS, 45.5 for ABC and 34.6 for NBC.

"Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to catch up on content they missed when it aired on television and the networks are beginning to capitalize on this trend," said Jon Gibs, vice president for media analytics at Nielsen.--Mark Walsh