NZ Site Strong, NBC & Yahoo Lead Olympic Ratings

Kiwi Site Strong As NBC And Yahoo! Head Olympic Sites Surfed Globally By Web Users

US, Asia Pacific & European Domains Draw Users As International Olympic Interest Surges

Auckland, September 19, 2000 - Official Olympics TV broadcaster NBC and global portal sports.yahoo.com are running neck and neck in attracting web traffic from around the world to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, according to the first international edition of the Nielsen//NetRatings 'Web Olympics Index'.

The 'Web Olympics Index' provides a daily snapshot of web traffic to Olympics and related sites during the previous 24 hours. The service is provided by ACNielsen eRatings.com, Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc. and covers 14 countries.

Key findings from today's Index showed that:

* New Zealand's official Olympics Committee site, oneolympics.nzoom.com, entered the global Index at 20th spot, proving beyond doubt the exceptional level of interest among New Zealanders.

* Overall, global portal sport.yahoo.com was the most visited Olympics-related site, while official TV broadcaster NBC generated the most page views (5.88 million pages).

* Official IBM Olympics site olympics.com stamped its mark as a key "go to" site, appearing second in the index according to page views (4.34 million pages).

* Japanese interest in the Olympics showed through strongly in the Index with a number of local sites appearing. Sports.yahoo.co.jp was the top Japanese site in terms of popularity and page views, followed by nikkansports.com, official Japanese Olympic Committee site joc.or.jp, sydney2k.lycos.co.jp and online sports magazine wave.au.com.

* Not surprisingly, US-based sports sites rated highly, with sportsillustrated.cnn.com appearing fourth in terms of both popularity and page views. Other US sites to rank included sportingnews.com, foxsports.com, CBS-site olympics.sportsline.com, sportsnetwork.com and the LA Times, which all appeared in the top 15.

* Swedish Olympic site olympiaden.nu appeared in the Index at 13th place, indicating the strength of the Nordic markets. A range of other sites based in the European region appeared just outside the top 25, but are expected to increase their web presence as the Olympics progress.

* British bookmaking site, willhill.com, came in at 23rd spot, suggesting web users are willing to punt on their favourite Olympic competitors and sports.

* The official site of the British Olympic Association came in at 24th spot, while a site dedicated to updating surfers on the medal progress of each country, medaltally.com, came in 25th.

* Other sites that entered the Index included Australian-based Games ticketing, transport and information site, gamesinfo.com.au, and Games' fan-mail site, fanmail.olympic.ibm.com, which allows athletes to send and receive good luck wishes.

Table 1: Most popular Olympics-related domains surfed globally.

Web domain Description
1 sports.yahoo.com Global online sports portal carrying Olympics coverage

2 nbcolympics.com Official US-based Olympic 2000 broadcaster

3 olympics.com Official IBM-hosted Olympics site

4 sportsillustrated.cnn.com Online CNN-Sports Illustrated site with Olympics content

5 sportsyahoo.co.jp Japanese-based sports and Olympics link of Yahoo!

6 nikkansports.com Japanese sports and Olympics portal

7 sportingnews.com US-based site carrying sports and Olympics content

8 foxsports.com US-based site carrying sports and Olympics content

9 olympics.com.au Australian Olympic Committee-Channel 7 site

10 joc.or.jp Japanese Olympic Committee site

11 olympics.sportsline.com CBS-hosted sports and Olympic site

12 sportsnetwork.com Sports and Olympics update site

13 olympiaden.nu Swedish Olympic site

14 sydney2k.lycos.co.jp Japanese sports Olympic portal

15 sportlatimes.com LA Times sports site carrying Olympic content

16 olympic.org International Olympic Committee site

17 ww2.netvigator.com Chinese language-based Olympic site

18 wave.au.com Japanese online magazine focused on Olympics

19 totalsports.aol.com America Online sports and Olympic-linked site

20 oneolympics.nzoom.com Official NZ Olympic Committee site for the Games

21 gamesinfo.com.au Transport, spectator and ticketing guide for the Games

22 fanmail.olympic.ibm.com IBM site for athletes to send and receive fan mail

23 willhill.com UK-based international betting site William Hill

24 olympics.org.uk Official site of the British Olympic Association

25 medaltally.com Update site on Olympic medals per country

Table 2: Top 5 Olympics-related domains ranked by page views.

Rank Web domain Page Views

1 nbcolympics.com 5.88 million

2 olympics.com 4.34 million

3 sports.yahoo.com 3.17 million

4 sportsillustrated.cnn.com 2.13 million

5 sportsyahoo.co.jp 1.71 million

The Nielsen//NetRatings Web Olympics Index The Nielsen//NetRatings Web Olympics Index measures online user activity of more than 165,000 at home panellists across more than 250 key Olympics and related sites in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, UK and the USA.

About Nielsen//NetRatings Through strategic partnerships between NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, the Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service collects real-time data from more than 165,000 Internet users around the world. The U.S. panel sample currently consists of 57,000 at-home users and 8,000 at-work users. International panels are under development with over 100,000 at-home users currently being measured. These panels collectively represent the largest media research sample of Internet users in the industry.

Nielsen//NetRatings uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behaviour, leveraging proprietary data-collection technology from NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research's 50 years of expertise in research and audience measurement, and ACNielsen's international leadership in offering market research information covering more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com .

About ACNielsen eRatings.com ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen (NYSE: ART) and NetRatings Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT). ACNielsen is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behavior, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries, and NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis. Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

About NetRatings, Inc. NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT) provides Internet audience measurement and analysis services that enable its customers to make informed decisions regarding their Internet strategies. NetRatings delivers accurate and timely information collected from a representative sample of Internet users and augments it with detailed, flexible reporting and in-depth analyses. ##

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