TV product placement dips? Sorta

According to a report by Nielsen, product placement on primetime programming for the first six months of 2008 was down nearly 15%. But even taking into account that double-digit drop, January-June viewers still experienced 204,919 "brand occurrences." And that decrease represents a mathematical average between broadcast placements, which actually jumped 12% over those six months, and a 20% decline in onscreen cable shout-outs. The report largely attributes the over-the-air increases to just two scheduling tweaks: NBC's "The Biggest Loser," broadcast's second most product-populated skein, premiered its fifth season in January rather than in its usual fall perch, while Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," which bowed in June 2007, premiered this year in April, placing more of its episodes in the spring.