Audi bet big on Obama
History was made last Tuesday in politics and media coverage as Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States.
According to the latest Nielsen Media Research, Comcast and other research types (it’s still being updated) broadcast television networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – combined was watched by almost 38 million people, slightly less than the coverage of JFK’s event. Data showed NBC won the broadcast net race.
Cable news networks – CNBC, CNN, MSNBC and others who accept advertising dollars which excludes C-Span – had an estimated audience of 18 to 22 million viewers. And the Internet had 22 different sites – newspapers, news magazines, bloggers, and other venues – for several more million viewers.
One of the web sites, cum networks with Audi’s ad program, was MSNBC.com who enjoyed a banner day as a result of the inauguration. By 1 p.m. EST the site had delivered over 9 million live streams, more than 5 million on-demand streams and over 80 million page views. CNN.com had the most page views with 130 million.
The exact number of viewers/streamers/watchers will never be known definitively because of variable factors including time variances, channel switching, web surfing and appointment video, as high noon EST became prime time for Obama’s oath taking. Suffice it to say it was the biggest web and television event ever.
Actual prime time was party down time for the new First Couple. And these numbers do not include international television audiences or web viewers. It too was huge.
Bottom line? Somewhere between 90 and 125 million viewers in the U.S.
Was it a good investment? I’d say so. Whatever Audi spent had to result in one of the lowest CPM in broadcast and web history!