MUMBAI: With a hotly debated host and a bevy of highly contested award categories, this year?s Academy Awards ceremony was a big media hit. And the flurry of opinions on everything Oscar-related-from who wore their tuxedo the best, to which jokes were off-color-helped drive TV viewership, social media buzz and music sales.

According to Nielsen, an average of 40.4 million TV viewers tuned in to the star-studded telecast on US broadcaster ABC, up more than one million viewers from last year.

The event also prompted more than 6.4 million Oscar-related Tweets from 1.6 million people, according to data from SocialGuide. Emcee Seth McFarlane, creator of TV?s Family Guy, garnered the most Tweets, as his occasionally controversial material prompted more than 52,000 mentions across Twitter.

The top Oscar moment of the night, however, came when Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in ?Silver Linings Playbook?. SocialGuide also found that close to 44,000 Tweets were sent into the Twitterverse when the actress hit the stage to claim her golden statue.

Live performances of all the nominated songs helped drive Tweets and lift music sales. Digital sales for Adele?s Oscar-winning song ?Skyfall?, which the singer performed live at the awards, saw an increase of 56 per cent from the prior week. Consumers have now purchased 1.6 million digital copies of the song.

Digital sales of the other Best Song nominees-all of which were performed during the telecast-also grew after they were performed. That exposure was especially beneficial to self-taught composer, songwriter and producer J. Ralph, whose song ?Before My Time? (from the movie ?Chasing Ice?) saw the largest increase in digital track sales among the nominees-consumer purchases increased by 96 times following the ceremony.

Digital download sales also jumped after the show for the Les Mis?rables song ?One Day More? (performed by the movie?s cast, up 147 per cent), ?Goldfinger? (performed by Dame Shirley Bassey, up 310 per cent), ?And I Am Telling You? (performed by Jennifer Hudson, up 246 per cent) and" The Way We Were? (performed by Barbra Streisand, up 209 per cent).

Top Oscar Moments by Tweets per Minute

1 Jennifer Lawrence wins Best Actress
2 Cast of Les Miserables performs ?One Day More?
3 Adele performs ?Skyfall?
4 Kristen Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe present Best Production Design
5 Anne Hathaway wins Best Supporting Actress
6 Best Original Song goes to Adele for ?Skyfall?
7 Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tie for Best Sound Editing
8 Daniel Day-Lewis wins Best ActorMUMBAI: With a hotly debated host and a bevy of highly contested award categories, this year?s Academy Awards ceremony was a big media hit. And the flurry of opinions on everything Oscar-related-from who wore their tuxedo the best, to which jokes were off-color-helped drive TV viewership, social media buzz and music sales.

According to Nielsen, an average of 40.4 million TV viewers tuned in to the star-studded telecast on US broadcaster ABC, up more than one million viewers from last year.

The event also prompted more than 6.4 million Oscar-related Tweets from 1.6 million people, according to data from SocialGuide. Emcee Seth McFarlane, creator of TV?s Family Guy, garnered the most Tweets, as his occasionally controversial material prompted more than 52,000 mentions across Twitter.

The top Oscar moment of the night, however, came when Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in ?Silver Linings Playbook?. SocialGuide also found that close to 44,000 Tweets were sent into the Twitterverse when the actress hit the stage to claim her golden statue.

Live performances of all the nominated songs helped drive Tweets and lift music sales. Digital sales for Adele?s Oscar-winning song ?Skyfall?, which the singer performed live at the awards, saw an increase of 56 per cent from the prior week. Consumers have now purchased 1.6 million digital copies of the song.

Digital sales of the other Best Song nominees-all of which were performed during the telecast-also grew after they were performed. That exposure was especially beneficial to self-taught composer, songwriter and producer J. Ralph, whose song ?Before My Time? (from the movie ?Chasing Ice?) saw the largest increase in digital track sales among the nominees-consumer purchases increased by 96 times following the ceremony.

Digital download sales also jumped after the show for the Les Mis?rables song ?One Day More? (performed by the movie?s cast, up 147 per cent), ?Goldfinger? (performed by Dame Shirley Bassey, up 310 per cent), ?And I Am Telling You? (performed by Jennifer Hudson, up 246 per cent) and" The Way We Were? (performed by Barbra Streisand, up 209 per cent).

Top Oscar Moments by Tweets per Minute

1 Jennifer Lawrence wins Best Actress
2 Cast of Les Miserables performs ?One Day More?
3 Adele performs ?Skyfall?
4 Kristen Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe present Best Production Design
5 Anne Hathaway wins Best Supporting Actress
6 Best Original Song goes to Adele for ?Skyfall?
7 Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tie for Best Sound Editing
8 Daniel Day-Lewis wins Best Actor
9 Argo wins Best Picture
10 Claudio Miranda accepts Best Cinematography award for Life of Pi

9:08 PM Top 10 Star Mentions on Twitter Rank Star Mentions

1 @SethMacFarlane 52,021
2 @OfficialAdele 23,739
3 @channingtatum 16,963
4 @BenAffleck 15,019
5 @hitRECordJoe 12,882
6 @KChenoweth 11,137
7 @IAMJHUD 9,804
8 @kerrywashington 7,663
9 @SamuelLJackson 7,548
10 @katiecouric 6,285
9 Argo wins Best Picture
10 Claudio Miranda accepts Best Cinematography award for Life of Pi

9:08 PM Top 10 Star Mentions on Twitter Rank Star Mentions1 @SethMacFarlane 52,021
2 @OfficialAdele 23,739
3 @channingtatum 16,963
4 @BenAffleck 15,019
5 @hitRECordJoe 12,882
6 @KChenoweth 11,137
7 @IAMJHUD 9,804
8 @kerrywashington 7,663
9 @SamuelLJackson 7,548
10 @katiecouric 6,285