Canadian audiences showed up in a huge way for supporting the country’s athletes at the Beijing Olympics. In fact, over 70 per cent tuned in to watch CBC/Radio-Canada’s Winter Olympics coverage every evening.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) enjoyed the highest share in television audience support and tune-in of any local network – not to mention the most Games ever streamed via CBC Gem. Online streaming too, reached epic proportions, with the streaming of coverage on its digital platforms 11 per cent up when compared to the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games.
Impressive Viewing Stats
According to CBC executive director of Sports and Olympics, Chris Wilson, it had been a proud moment to realise that millions of Canadians around the globe had tuned in to the broadcaster’s coverage of the Games and had done so from early in the morning to late in the evenings.
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He said this support was proof once again of just how relevant and appealing the Olympic Games are to people in Canada. Wilson said in addition to the massive television viewing audiences, Canadians streamed an additional 458 million minutes of coverage online.
The CBC’s coverage provided round-the-clock reporting on several platforms including more than 2,400 hours of live content in association with official partners TSN and Sportsnet, and over 1,200 of televised broadcasting.
The broadcaster’s free-to-watch digital video streaming service, CBC Gem, saw audiences tune in for 276 million minutes of streamed coverage. This, too, marked an increase when compared to the Games at PyeongChang, and by at least 19 per cent.
Not surprisingly, the event to have drawn a peak television audience of a massive 2.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched event of the Winter Olympics, had been the Canada-United States women’s hockey gold-medal event. The event achieved these incredible numbers despite a starting time of 11 p.m. ET.
A milestone indeed had been the CBC’s expansion of its Indigenous language coverage. This attracted 226,850 views, with Canadian hockey games broadcast in Inuktitut for the first time ever.
The Leading Attractions
Below are the 5-most watched Winter Olympics events on Canadian television:
- The Feb. 16 US-Canada women’s hockey gold-medal game: 2.7 million viewers tuned in via CBC, Sportsnet, and TSN.
- The Feb. 12 Men’s Curling event: 1.81 million viewers followed the action via TSN and CBC.
- The Feb. 7 Women’s freestyle skiing event: the big air final was watched by 1.84 million viewers via TSN2 and CBC.
- The Feb. 8 Women’s snowboard event: 1.75 million viewers tuned in for the halfpipe qualifying round on CBC and TSN.
- The Feb. 6 team figure skating showdown, a pairs event, attracted 1.81 million viewers on Sportsnet and CBC.
