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[09/14/09 - 01:44 PM]
2009 MTV Video Music Awards Premiere Watched by 27 Million Total Viewers Up 17% VS. 2008
MTV spins the numbers for Sunday, September 13.

[via press release from MTV]

2009 MTV Video Music Awards Premiere Watched By 27 Million Total Viewers Up 17% vs. 2008

#1 CABLE TELECAST OF 2009 AMONG P12-34

BEST VMA PREMIERE DAY IN MTV.COM HISTORY

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 --

MTV'S LINEAR TV SUCCESS

The 2009 Video Music Awards was watched by over 26.9 million viewers on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 on Sunday night. This is up +17% from the 23 million who tuned in to MTV/MTV2 last year.

Airing on MTV, MTV2 and VH1, the 2009 VMAs averaged over 11 million total viewers. This is up +21% from MTV and MTV2's coverage in 2008 (9.1 million) and the largest VMA audience since 2002.

On MTV, The 2009 VMAs averaged just under 9 million total viewers, the largest audience since the 2004 awards. Up +6% year to year (8.97 million vs. 8.43 million).

On MTV2, The 2009 VMAs averaged 749,000 total viewers, up +11% year to year (749,000 vs. 674,000).

Among P12-34, The 2009 VMAs on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 averaged 7.2 million P12-34 viewers. This is up +16% from MTV and MTV2's coverage in 2008 (7.2 million vs. 6.2 million).

On MTV, The 2009 VMAs delivered a 7.5 P12-34 coverage rating, its strongest rating since the 2005 VMAs.

The 2009 VMAs is the #1 show on cable this year among P12-34.

On VH1, The 2009 VMAs averaged 1.3 million total viewers, improving its time period by +21%. Among P12-34, VH1 averaged a 1.03 rating, up 8% in its time period.

Source: Nielsen. Live+SD Coverage ratings/000s. Time period improvement = vs. QTD average. Cable rank = 000s. Watched = reach, 1+ minute qualifier.

MTV.COM'S BEST VMA PREMIERE DAY EVER

Overall, MTV.com logged 2.7M unique visitors on Sunday (9/13/09), a 20% increase over the date of the 2008 VMAs (9/7/08) and a 220% increase vs. last Sunday (9/6/09).

1.7 million unique visitors viewed VMA content including show pages, flipbooks, video content and news related to the show on Sunday (9/13/09), a 24% increase over 2008's premiere day (9/7/08), making it the best VMA premiere day in MTV.com history.

MTV.com's VMA-specific content delivered a 14% increase in page views vs. the 2008 show day (9/7/08).

Overall, visitors to MTV.com viewed more than 5 million video streams on Sunday, a 45% increase from the day of the 2008 VMAs (9/7/08)

As of noon on September 14, 2009, MTV.com is already seeing significant traffic numbers, with more than 1.8 million unique visitors viewing VMA content, and more than 5.3 million video streams viewed.

Jesse Ignjatovic/Den of Thieves is the Executive Producer for the "2009 MTV Video Music Awards." Dave Sirulnick is Executive Producer. Garrett English is co-Executive Producer/Executive in Charge of Production. Amy Doyle is co-Executive Producer. Joanna Bomberg is Executive in Charge of Music and Talent. Jen Jones is Producer. Hamish Hamilton is Director. Robin Reinhardt-Locke is Celebrity Talent Executive.

Official sponsors of the "2009 MTV Video Music Awards" are 5(R)( )Gum, Febreze, Pepsi, Rhapsody(R), Sears, Taco Bell(R), U.S. Army and Verizon Wireless.

The "2009 MTV Video Music Awards" will be available to a potential viewing audience of more than 1.2 billion people via MTV's global network of 68 channels reaching 577 million households around the world as well as through syndication. In addition, its convergent programming & content will reach the entire interactive community, via MTV's more than 200 digital media properties around the world.

About MTV:

MTV is the dynamic, vibrant experiment at the intersection of music, creativity and youth culture. For over 27 years, MTV has evolved, challenged the norm, and detonated boundaries -- giving each new generation a creative outlet and voice that entertains, informs and unites on every platform and screen. On-air, MTV is the number one rated full-day ad-supported cable network for P12-24. Online, MTV.com averaged 21.7 million monthly unique visitors during the first quarter of 2009 -- up +7% from the 4Q/2008. Total video streams for the first quarter of 2009 increased by 13% from 4Q/2008 and by 21% over the same time period last year. And MTV's successful sibling networks MTV2, mtvU and MTV Tr3s each deliver unprecedented customized content, super-serving music fans, college students and young American Latinos like no one else. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.





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