Photos: Compete Releases Top TV Sites for August Heading into Fall's Primetime Lineup

Photos: Compete Releases Top TV Sites for August Heading into Fall's Primetime Lineup

Food Network Draws Foodies to the Web, Cable's Comics Battle It Out for Online Fans and Season Premiere Anticipation Spurs Record Growth

BOSTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Compete, a TNS Media company, today released its ranking of the top television entertainment sites for August 2009, which is based on data from the company's integrated online panel of two million US-based internet users. The online homes of television channels experienced a jump in visitors over 2008; the category grew 15.4 percent to reach more than 71 million UVs in August.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/compete/40322/

In the television entertainment category, the Food Network collected the most online viewers (9.7 million UVs), closely followed by TV.Yahoo.com (8.9 million UVs) and MTV (5.5 million UVs). Among the fastest growing television sites, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were found competing for online fans. Stewart's thedailyshow.com grew by 109 percent month-over-month to reach 1.2 million UVs; and Colbert fans flocked to colbertnation.com, growing site traffic by 113 percent over July 2009 to reach 706,000 UVs in August.

Anticipation also grew around season premieres, driving record growth to sites including amctv.com, home to runaway hit Mad Men and 1.1 million UVs; and GSN.com, where 1.1 million visitors fuel their passion for games and game shows.

"If you want evidence of multi-channel interactions look no further than entertainment categories," said Cynthia Stephens, director of marketing at Compete. "Consumers want to interact with their favorite TV celebrities and shows on their own time - whether that is during Primetime, watching a recorded program or going online to get the latest news and information - and marketers are responding."

About Compete

Compete, a unit of TNS Media, helps the world's top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Leading marketers such as Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Hyundai Motor America, Upromise, Chrysler, and Verizon Wireless rely on Compete's services to create effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Compete's online behavior database--the largest in the industry--makes the Web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people's lives.

Compete was founded in 2000 and is located in Boston, MA, with offices throughout the U.S. For more information about us, please visit www.competeinc.com, or to join the conversation visit www.compete.com.

About TNS Media

Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all the media - print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoors worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more. The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers in the world. www.tnsmediagroup.com

All logos, company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About Kantar Group

The Kantar Group is one of the world's largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies - including the recently-acquired TNS - the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. For further information, please visit www.Kantar.com.

First Call Analyst:
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Video: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/compete/40322

Source: Compete

CONTACT: Cynthia Stephens, Compete, Inc., +1-617-933-5651,
cstephens@compete.com; or Gretchen Bender, Greenough Communications,
+1-617-275-6526, gbender@greenoughcom.com

Web Site: http://www.compete.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment