Olympics Drive a Banner August for Sports Web Sites at Work With 26 Percent Year-Over-Year Growth, According to Nielsen Online

Women Visitors Drive Growth, Outpacing Male Audience Growth

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, today reported a 26 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors at work to online sports destinations, growing from 33.4 million unique visitors in August 2007 to 42.3 million unique visitors in August 2008, driven in large part by the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the kick-off of football season.

The custom Web property, NBC Olympics attracted significant traffic at work during the month, reaching 20 percent of the active at work Web population, slightly more than 13.8 million unique visitors. The breadth of Olympics content that NBC provided online contributed to people not only visiting the Web site, but also staying for extended periods of time, with the average visitor spending 57 minutes and 7 seconds over the course of the month.

Table 1: August 2008 Data for NBC Olympics (U.S., Work Only)
Site       Unique Audience(000)  Active Reach(%)  Time Per Person(hh:mm:ss)
NBC
 Olympics               13,803             20.4                    0:57:07
Source: Nielsen Online Custom Analysis

"With broad interest in the Olympics, and the ramp up of the college and professional football seasons, August was a busy month for online sports fans. The Web offered 24/7 access to news, results and video, and fans demonstrated a healthy appetite for information about their favorite athletes and teams," said Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online.

Yahoo! Sports was the number one online sports destination at work in August 2008, with 18.7 million unique visitors, growing 112 percent year-over-year. Web properties, ESPN and FOX Sports on MSN took the No. 2 and 3 spots, with 11.9 million unique visitors and 7.7 million unique visitors, respectively. Among the top ten sports sites, Fantasy Sports Ventures Network was the fastest growing, increasing 285 percent from one million unique visitors to 3.9 million in August 2008 (see Table 2).

"The increasing popularity of fantasy football also helped drive the impressive growth for the sports category in August. Over the past few years, fantasy sports have been one of the key drivers of consumer engagement in the sports category. In many cases, fantasy sports have become more popular than the sports coverage itself," said Gibs.

Table 2: Top 10 Sports Web Sites for August 2008 (U.S., Work Only)
Site                     Aug-07 UA(000)   Aug-08 UA(000)   Percent Growth
Sports Category                 33,405           42,252                26%
Yahoo! Sports                    8,820           18,727               112%
ESPN                            10,314           11,936                16%
FOX Sports on MSN                6,824            7,714                13%
SI Digital Sites                 3,913            6,490                66%
CBS Sports                       5,092            5,708                12%
NFL Internet Network             4,630            5,692                23%
MLB.com                          5,521            5,486                -1%
AOL Sports                       3,905            3,993                 2%
Fantasy Sports Ventures Network  1,019            3,926               285%
Beijing2008.cn                     N/A            3,026               N/A
Source: Nielsen Online

Women Drive Growth Within Sports Category

The number of female unique visitors at work to sports-related Web sites in August grew 37 percent, compared to the same period in 2007, outpacing the percent increase in male visitors by 76 percent. The number of women increased from 12 million unique visitors and a unique audience composition percentage of 36 percent in August 2007 to 16.4 million unique visitors and a unique audience composition percentage of 39 percent in August 2008 (see Table 3).

Table 3: Unique Audience to Sports-Related Web Sites among Men and Women
 (U.S., Work Only)
Gender       Aug-07 UA (000)    Aug-08 UA (000) Percent Growth
Male                 21,401             25,863              21%
Female               12,004             16,389              37%
Source: Nielsen Online

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Nielsen Online today also reported August 2008 data for the Top Parent
Companies/Divisions and Top Web Brands.

Table 4: Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions for August 2008 (U.S., Home and
 Work)
Parent                  Unique Audience (000)   Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1. Google                            131,186                      2:03:08
2. Microsoft                         124,271                      2:27:31
3. Yahoo!                            118,580                      3:22:41
4. Time Warner (Division*)           100,221                      3:24:30
5. News Corp. Online                  79,871                      1:51:40
6. InterActiveCorp                    67,805                      0:21:13
7. eBay                               64,177                      1:52:13
8. Amazon                             54,819                      0:27:03
9. Wikimedia Foundation               53,471                      0:21:26
10.Walt Disney Internet Group         50,775                      0:55:51
*Time Warner division excludes Turner Network's audience.

Example: The data indicates that 50.8 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Walt Disney Internet Group-owned sites or launched a Walt Disney Internet Group-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 55 minutes and 51 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.

The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.

Table 5: Top 10 Web Brands for August 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)
Brand                   Unique Audience (000)   Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1. Google                            123,690                      1:25:18
2. Yahoo!                            117,702                      3:22:31
3. MSN/Windows Live                  103,953                      2:21:25
4. Microsoft                          93,558                      0:38:39
5. AOL Media Network                  93,070                      3:33:46
6. YouTube                            75,442                      1:01:01
7. Fox Interactive Media              70,696                      1:54:24
8. eBay                               55,842                      1:52:01
9. Wikipedia                          52,987                      0:21:24
10.Apple                              48,766                      1:10:42

About Nielsen Online:

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com.

About The Nielsen Company:

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.