MUMBAI: The 2009 Video Music Awards was watched by over 26.9 million viewers on MTV, MTV2 and VH1on 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 VH1averaged 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. OnVH1, The 2009 VMAs averaged 1.3 million total viewers, improving its time period by +21%.  Among P12-34, VH1averaged a 1.03 rating, up 8% in  its time period.

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 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.

The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards will be available to a potential viewing audience of more than 1.2 billion people viaMTV’sglobal 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, viaMTV’smore than 200 digital media properties around the world.