Admittedly after the fact, but for those planning or buying Online for next Fall's sports season, here's some exclusive research viewer demographics just released from comScore Media Metrix based on U.S. Internet users from Home, Work and University PCs. It appears that the interest in the start-up of the NFL was even more interesting to fans than the race for MLB division titles and World Series candidates.

Yahoo! in aggregate is almost 50% more popular than Hotmail or Microsoft in communications during the week ending November 3rd. And more women than men in the overall demographics. And, you guessed it, twice as many men as women are on the popular automotive sites.

In-Stat/MDR reports that there are some very bright spots in the wireless data market. Overall, the messaging market (thanks to the newer Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) and Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) that support graphics and video) will continue to outstrip the wireless Internet market, in terms of subscribers, through 2006, growing from an estimated 305 million at the end of 2001 to more than 1 billion by the end of 2006. While smaller than the messaging market, the wireless Internet market is growing at the same pace.

MeasureCast, Inc. announced that Virgin Radio, MUSICMATCH and Clear Channel Worldwide topped their respective Internet radio rankings for the week of October 14. Since January, the total time spent listening to on-line radio stations measured by MeasureCast is up 159%. The MeasureCast Internet Radio Listening Index dropped less than one-half of one percent during the previous week.

Leichtman Research Group finds that as of the end of the third quarter of 2002 the leading cable and DSL providers in the United States have a total of over 15.6 million high-speed Internet subscribers. During the quarter the major US cable and DSL providers added a combined 1.68 million subscribers.

Around 62 percent of all adults across the major European countries now use a mobile phone, according to new research from Gartner G2. Currently, 41 percent of European adults use SMS, compared to 30 percent that use the Internet/email. Last year, 28 percent of European adults used SMS, as opposed to 29 percent who went online. SMS is particularly popular in the UK where 49 percent of adults use it, compared to 39 percent who are online.

About 22% of women with access to the internet have bought something online compared with 19% of men, a Royal Bank of Scotland survey found. The study was conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres interviewing 611 adults with internet access. But when men do decide to buy via the web they are likely to spend more money than women.

comScore Networks reported record results in consumer e-commerce for the third quarter of 2002. Total consumer online sales for the quarter reached $17.9 billion, up 35 percent versus the third quarter of 2001 and up two percent versus the second quarter of 2002. Year-to-date sales through Sept. 30 totaled $52.5 billion, up 41 percent versus the same period in 2001, and nearly equal to the $53.1 billion in spending posted in all of 2001.

Spending is directly linked to lifestage. Although the spending of middle-aged householders has always been above average thanks to their higher incomes, the importance of the middle-aged is greater than ever because their ranks have swelled with the large Baby-Boom generation. Boomer householders, now essentially filling the 35-to-54 age group, control more than half of the nation’s total household spending.

The total number of television households in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is estimated at 106,700,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. The new universe estimate will take effect with the broadcast week of August 26-September 1, 2002, meaning each national rating point will represent one percent of the total, or 1,067,000 television households.