Primetime placements rise in Q1

'Biggest Loser,' 'American Idol' top the list

By Paul J. Gough

May 5, 2008

hr/photos/stylus/25223-biggest_loser_341x182.jpg

"The Biggest Loser"

Product placements grew 6% in primetime in the first quarter, thanks to more use by the broadcast networks in reality series because of the WGA strike.

Among the broadcast networks, product placements jumped 39% with 15,404 occurrences in the top 10 programs, compared with 8,893 in the first quarter of 2007. Nielsen Product Placement Services attributed this to the strike, which gave prominent primetime airings to "Big Brother" and "The Apprentice," among other shows.

Yet cable's product placements were flat year-to-year. The top program by far was TLC's "American Chopper," which had 16,164 product placements in the quarter compared to second-place "Project Runway" on Bravo with 9,816.

Among broadcast nets, NBC's "The Biggest Loser" had the most product placements with 3,977 to Fox's "American Idol" in second place with 3,291. The other top 10 shows were NBC's "The Apprentice" and "Deal or No Deal," ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," CBS' "Big Brother" and four shows on the CW: "CW Now," "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious," "America's Next Top Model" and "One Tree Hill."

Primetime placements rise in Q1

'Biggest Loser,' 'American Idol' top the list

By Paul J. Gough

May 5, 2008

hr/photos/stylus/25223-biggest_loser_341x182.jpg

"The Biggest Loser"

Product placements grew 6% in primetime in the first quarter, thanks to more use by the broadcast networks in reality series because of the WGA strike.

Among the broadcast networks, product placements jumped 39% with 15,404 occurrences in the top 10 programs, compared with 8,893 in the first quarter of 2007. Nielsen Product Placement Services attributed this to the strike, which gave prominent primetime airings to "Big Brother" and "The Apprentice," among other shows.

Yet cable's product placements were flat year-to-year. The top program by far was TLC's "American Chopper," which had 16,164 product placements in the quarter compared to second-place "Project Runway" on Bravo with 9,816.

Among broadcast nets, NBC's "The Biggest Loser" had the most product placements with 3,977 to Fox's "American Idol" in second place with 3,291. The other top 10 shows were NBC's "The Apprentice" and "Deal or No Deal," ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," CBS' "Big Brother" and four shows on the CW: "CW Now," "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious," "America's Next Top Model" and "One Tree Hill."

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DENVER -- New figures from NPD Group suggest that the Amazon DRM-free digital music service is doing more to grow the overall digital music market as opposed to simply stealing customers from iTunes.

The research group says only 10% of Amazon customers had previously bought music from Apple's iTunes service. While many tagged the Amazon service as an "iTunes killer" when it first launched, the music industry's hope all along was never to cannibalize iTunes sales but rather encourage new digital buyers. NPD's data suggest exactly that is happening.

"The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick in a statement.

NPD says Amazon is now second only to iTunes in the a la carte digital download category (for those keeping score). The company did not disclose how many users Amazon has attracted in total, however it did say iTunes volume is 10 times that of Amazon.

Some interesting demographic breakdown has emerged between the two services as well. NPD says 84% of Amazon customers are male, compared to 44% of iTunes, but only 3% of Amazon customers were teens, compared to iTunes' 18% (the latter attributed primarily to the popularity of iTunes gift cards.)

NPD says Amazon's growth is likely more due to existing Amazon customers adopting the new service rather than due its lower pricing or DRM-free policies.

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