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Web Sites' reach matches TV, claims DoubleClick

7/29/2002

New York, - The Internet's most popular sites consistently deliver larger audiences than television's most-watched programs and are comparable in reach to popular consumer magazines, according to a recently released study by DoubleClick Inc.

DoubleClick Inc. is a provider of marketing tools for advertisers, direct marketers and web publishers

The study compares the relative audience reach of Internet sites, network TV programs and consumer magazines. The study also found that the Internet, in comparison to TV and consumer magazines, is highly effective in reaching two coveted demographics, teens and adult males. However, the study also shows that consumer magazines on average continue to deliver the highest ratings of the three marketing mediums, with its most popular titles delivering ratings that are 36 percent higher than television and the Internet.

Rob Frydlewicz, a media research consultant and a former director of media research at Foote Cone and Belding conducted this survey on behalf of DoubleClick. The survey is an extension of Frydlewicz's original Cross Media Reach Study, which compared the audience sizes of popular consumer magazines and television episodes. In conducting this study, DoubleClick added the Internet to the mix and has established for the first time that despite each mediums inherent differences, the most popular consumer magazines, television episodes and Internet sites each attract audience sizes in the millions.

"Earlier this year we talked to over 200 marketers who told us their top reason for not spending more online was that their customer was not online," said Susan Sachatello, Chief Marketing Officer, DoubleClick. "In comparing these mediums side-by-side using industry standard metrics, this study demonstrates that both in aggregate and in key target groups, the Internet is in fact a mainstream mass-market medium and that marketers should be going online to reach their customers."

According to the study, on average, the top three sites attracted audience sizes 43 percent larger than the top three prime time television programs. In addition, these same Internet sites attracted audience sizes that were on average only five percent less than the top three consumer magazines. However, with 26.6 million readers, People Magazine is still the undisputed leader in attracting large audiences.

Aside from attracting large overall audiences, in comparison to network TV and consumer magazines, the Internet is a highly effective medium for reaching certain demographic groups, including all males 18-49, high income males and high income adults 25-54. In these specific groups, the 25 most popular Internet sites deliver higher Gross Rating Points (GRPs) than the top 25 TV programs or magazines in these same demographic groups, (See chart below). However, magazines continue to far out-deliver both the Internet and television in reaching women 18-49 and blacks 18-49.

The study compared the 25 most popular Internet sites, primetime TV programs and consumer magazines across 12 different demographic categories, including age, race and gender. It should be noted that the period of time measured to capture the average audience for the Internet, network TV and consumer magazines differs: (average minute for TV, average issue for magazines and specific month for Internet sites). Moving forward, this study will be conducted twice a year to track and analyze how consumer usage of each medium evolves.

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