TVB: ‘Sound Of Music’ Drove Social Media

“It wasn’t just the ‘hills that were alive’ Thursday night,” said Steve Lanzano, TVB president-CEO, in a statement today. He is referring to last week’s live telecast of The Sound of Music by NBC.

“The local markets airing NBC’s ambitious three-hour live production … saw commanding viewer attention across the country as well as a surge of social media activity. KFOR in Oklahoma City, home market of the production’s star Carrie Underwood, delivered the highest local live ratings, 20.7 in households, up 445% over the November 13 Thursday time period. Notably, WTHR (Indianapolis), WGRZ (Buffalo), WTMJ (Milwaukee) and KDSK (St. Louis), each delivered similar outstanding household ratings. In all, 31 of the 56 metered-markets outperformed the national average.

“In terms of social media, Nielsen’s Social Guide reported that Sound of Music was the No. 1 topic on Twitter for the night the program aired and for the entire week, generating nearly 54,000 more tweets than the No. 2 TV-tweeted program, Scandal, did on Dec. 5. In fact, Sound of Music generated a ‘Twitter audience’ of nearly 69 million impressions — almost 53 million more than Scandal.

“Furthermore, the Twitter audience of Sound of Music was almost two-and-a-half times the size of the next four top tweeted programs of the night combined, dwarfing discussions about all other TV programs on Twitter.

“Additionally, the live version of The Sound of Music delivered a younger audience than 2012’s airing of the classic movie version, with adults 18-34 representing 16% of the live viewing audience compared to 9% for the movie.”

Lanzano concluded: “NBC’s bold approach in live event programming was rewarded with strong ratings, great demos and intense social media activity demonstrating again broadcast television’s ability to move large audiences to unparalleled viewing experiences, especially around the holidays with NBC’s annual Christmas Tree lighting in Rockefeller Center delivering a 6.1 Live+Same Day household rating and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade garnering a 12.8 Live+Same Day rating (at 9 a.m.).

“These programming specials, as well as other live broadcast television events, continue to deliver massive local audiences, which is why brands continue to look first to broadcast TV as a trusted marketing solution.”