MUMBAI: US measurement service comScore Networks has reported the results of a study conducted on visitation to popular film-related Internet sites in conjunction with last weeek‘s 79th Annual Academy Awards.

On Sunday 25 February, 2007 139,000 US Internet users visited Oscar.com, a one-day increase of 219-per cent versus the 44,000 visitors that visited the site on 24 February, 2007.

comScore Media Metrix executive VP Jack Flanagan says, "For the audience watching the Academy Awards at home, the Internet has become an important part of enjoying the festivities. Whether they follow the action on the red carpet or view clips and trailers of nominated movies, consumers are supplementing their television viewing experience with web content."

Tinternational visitor traffic to Oscar.com also spiked. Of the 422,000 total worldwide visitors to Oscar.com on Oscar Sunday, just one out of every three site visitors came from the U.S. while the remaining two-thirds came from international locations. Canada and Mexico, both of which were well represented among the various award nominees, combined to account for nearly 10 per cent of the worldwide audience.

European countries such as the UK and France also factored in prominently with 10,000 and 8,000 visitors, respectively. Nielsen Media Research meanwhile says that the Academy Awards which aired on US broadcaster ABC had 24 minutes of commercial time during the 3 hour and 10 minute broadcast (not including the Oscar pre-show). This was down slightly from 24 and a half minutes last year.

27 unique brands aired commercials that competed for viewers‘ attention for a total of 38 national advertisements in this year‘s broadcast. In addition, ABC aired three minutes and 50 seconds of promotional announcements.

General Motors was the top advertiser again this year, with 3? minutes of commercial time, 30 seconds less than last year. Coca-Cola and L‘Oreal tied for second place with three minutes each. J.C. Penney was the fourth largest advertiser with 2? minutes. These four companies have maintained the top slots for the last two Oscar telecasts.