Britney Spears Scores For MTV As Ratings Jump 23%
We can say anything we want about how horrible Britney and MTV’s Video Music Awards have become, but viewers tuned in not out in record numbers.
The 2007 VMA premiere averaged a 6.40 rating among 12-24 year olds, a 23% increase over last year. This year’s VMAs rank as the highest rated telecast on cable for the year among the 12-34 age group. The premiere averaged over 7 million viewers and combined VMA programming (pre-show, premiere, post-show and repeat) reached more than 23.6 million viewers.
Web traffic on all related sites also soared according to MTV. More stats after the jump.
Ratings Jump By 23 Percent
The 2007 VMA premiere averaged a 6.40 P12-34 rating, representing a 23 percent increase over last year’s VMAs. This year’s VMAs rank as the highest- rated telecast on ad-supported cable for the year to-date among P12-34. The premiere averaged over 7 million viewers P2+. All VMA programming (pre-show, premiere, post-show and repeat) reached more than 23.6 million viewers P2+.
The VMA Pre-Show averaged a 3.13 P12-34 rating, a 72 percent increase versus last year’s pre-VMA show, while the post-show earned a 4.66 P12-34, up 86 percent from last year.
MTV.com Traffic and Streams Soar
MTV.com scored a triple win, shattering records for unique visitors on the day prior, day of and day after the VMAs.
MTV.com attracted 4.7MM unique visitors by just 1 p.m. ET yesterday (9/10/07),* making it the highest-trafficked day on the site ever and a 140 percent increase from the day after last year’s VMAs (9/1/06).
Monday’s incredible performance comes on top of Sunday (9/9/07), which itself set a daily record for unique visitors. On Sunday, the site attracted 2.6MM uniques, a 40 percent increase over last year’s day-of-show numbers (8/31/06).
On Saturday (9/8/07), MTV.com logged 1.4MM unique visitors, a 40 percent increase over last year’s day prior to the show (8/30/06).
Just as MTV.com set back-to-back records for uniques this year, the site set new benchmarks for streams.
Viewers generated more than 17.4MM streams on Monday (9/10/07) – an astonishing 160 percent increase over day after last year’s show (9/1/06) – and a one-day record. The embeddable player, which allowed bloggers and fans to paste video from MTV.com onto their own sites and homepages, generated nearly another 4MM streams, bringing the total number of streams to 21MM.
In addition to streaming video, viewers also cast nearly 100,000 votes for their favorite performances, moments and awards. Viewers’ votes will inspire the three re-mix editions of the VMAs – "The Celebrity Commentary Edition," which airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT; "The Viewer’s Choice" remix, which airs Thursday at 6 p.m. ET/PT; and the celebrity performances and un-aired Fantasy Suite performances, which airs Saturday at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
Fans Dial In to MTV Mobile
Fans also followed all the action on their mobile phones, streaming video clips and texting their votes for Best New Artist.
On Monday, MTV Mobile generated the most video streams ever in a single day – more than double what the service delivers on an average Monday. In fact, the VMAs proved so popular on the mobile platform that VMA clips accounted for all of the top 20 videos viewed on MTV Mobile. MTV Mobile published over 200 VMA-related clips during the days leading up to and following the live show – an unprecedented number of clips for a single event on the mobile channel.
Viewers who purchased the two Britney Spears ringtones available exclusively on MTV Mobile following her performance drove MTV Mobile to record days on Sunday and Monday. Subscriptions to MTV Mobile on both days were double previous daily records.
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of votes were cast for the Best New Artist category on the day of the show itself, with nearly 120,000 text messages logged between 9 p.m. and the cutoff time of 10:34 p.m. ET.
VMAs and Sponsors Win Big Via Live Dial Test
During the show, MTV conducted focus groups and a live dial test with viewers to get their reaction in real time reaction to the VMAs. Focus-group viewers thought the show had a "different vibe," a "new energy" and that it felt like a "crowd at a live concert." (Other comments: "The performance on the roof with Kanye was awesome! I liked how he moved through the crowd and worked it" and "It was all about the music this year.") The live dial test revealed that 82 percent of the viewers said they enjoyed watching the show and 77 percent said they would be talking about it with friends.
Viewers in the live-dial test also responded strongly to the event’s sponsors. The results – there is a lot to gain by being involved with the VMAs:
— As a premier event for young people, the test showed they expect
sponsors to treat the event in kind, by featuring customized, unique
creative spots. Overall, custom spots created for the VMAs generated
stronger engagement scores than traditional spots.
— 7 out of 10 respondents agreed that the VMAs feature advertising that
is more relevant to their lifestyle than what they typically see on
other networks.
— 8 out of 10 respondents also say that brands should advertise on the
VMAs if they want to connect with consumers like them.
— The majority of viewers said they had an overall better impression of
the brands/products advertised in the VMAs. They also thought that
brands were cooler than before by being associated with the VMAs were
more likely to talk to someone about brands/products that they saw
advertised on the VMAs
— The majority of viewers also responded favorably to the fit of this
year’s VMAs sponsors.
