ANN ARBOR, MI, September 16, 2005 – Signage logos of the top 10 corporate sponsors from the recently completed US Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York, appeared clear and in-focus for a combined 147 hours, 57 minutes during the 14 consecutive days of coverage afforded the tournament by CBS and USA Network.

        According to research conducted by Joyce Julius and Associates, American Express, Citizen, Heineken, IBM, JPMorganChase, Lexus, MassMutual, Olympus, Polo Ralph Lauren and Sprint utilized signs placed around the playing surface, rings signs lining the various seating decks of Arthur Ashe Stadium, as well as the net in garnering the massive amount of TV time.  

          New to the tournament this year, Lexus benefited from having its distinctive "L" logo placed on the net of each men's match.  The result:  31 hours, 19 minutes, 15 seconds of clear, in-focus exposure time from the net logos alone.  By comparing the on-screen time to the estimated cost of a commercial during each respective broadcast, the Lexus net reaped nearly $70 million of exposure value.

          When taking into account the complete coverage provided to the day and night session of each day of play, as well as CBS' late night half-hour highlight programs and USA Network's 2 AM (EDT) Match of the Day telecasts, approximately 160 hours of tennis hit the airwaves over the two-week period.

          Joyce Julius was able to analyze the entire tournament (which in past years had taken its researchers up to six weeks to complete) in the days following the final match through utilization if its new Image Identification Technology (IIT).  The cutting-edge system — more than a decade in development and testing — allows for computerized image analysis of corporate logos during television broadcasts, based on specific pixel patterns identified by Joyce Julius researchers.

          In addition to increased speed of analysis, IIT provides Joyce Julius researchers with greater detail than previously possible with just the human eye, such as percentage of logo obstruction at any given time, or the exact size of the logo in relation to the entire screen.