MTV VMAs Watched by 27 Million

NEW YORK: This year’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) was watched by more than 26.9 million viewers on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 on Sunday night, up 17 percent from the 23 million who tuned in last year.

The event ranked as the number one telecast of 2009 among viewers 12 to 34. On MTV, MTV2 and VH1, the VMAs averaged more than 11 million total viewers. On MTV, the show averaged just under 9 million, MTV2 averaged 749,000 total viewers and VH1 averaged 1.3 million total viewers. The 2009 VMAs delivered a 7.5 coverage rating on MTV of those 12 to 34, the strongest showing since the 2005 awards.

MTV.com logged 2.7 million unique visitors on Sunday, a 20-percent increase over the 2008 VMAs and a 220-percent increase over last Sunday. Overall, visitors to MTV.com viewed more than 5 million video streams on Sunday, a 45-percent increase from the day of the 2008 awards.

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.