• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 13, 2009

PBS scored a coup this week--a national sponsorship deal with Microsoft, which will partially underwrite the "Nightly Business Report." The deal gives Microsoft placement on the popular business news show with on-air sponsor credits as well as sponsor identification on the program's Web site PBS.org.

Microsoft's Web site sponsor identification links to its landing page for business software and services, with brief case studies and testimonials from companies like Coca-Cola and BP.

The deal makes Microsoft the second big corporate sponsor enlisted by "NBR" in recent months, following ExxonMobil, which signed up in June 2008. Both join premiere sponsor Franklin Templeton Investments, which has sponsored NBR for two decades.

Microsoft will be the show's first sponsor from the tech category since 2002, when Compaq's Digital Equipment Corp. pulled out.

According to PBS, the "Nightly Business Report," produced by WPBT in Miami, is the most-watched daily business news program on TV--reaching an average 730,000 total viewers a night in February 2007, per Nielsen--with 217,000 of these in the 25-54 demo.

However, the tallies also mark a decline of 14% from 850,000 viewers in November 2002. (The show only gets Nielsen ratings twice a year for budget reasons.)

"NBR" also boasts of being the longest-running business news show, celebrating its 30th anniversary on Jan. 22.