VANCOUVER – Further analysis of the massive television audience that watched last Sunday’s Olympic gold medal men’s hockey game found that 22 million people – or two thirds of the Canadian population – were watching when Sidney Crosby scored Team Canada’s overtime goal.
The peak audience follows CTV’s earlier announcement that the 16.6 million average audience for the game makes it the most-watched television broadcast in Canadian history. Twenty million viewers were watching the medal ceremony in which Canada received its record 14th gold medal of the Games, peaking at 20.5 million viewers when Crosby was presented with his medal from IOC president Jacques Rogge. The game captured an 85 share, meaning 85% of Canadians watching television at the time were watching the gold medal match.
The game capped off a series of golden ratings for Canada’s Olympic broadcast media consortium, which delivered the top 5 most-watched television events in recorded history in Canada.
Overall, Canadians consumed 1.25 billion hours of Vancouver 2010 coverage on television alone, with the average viewer watching 38 hours of content throughout the Games. Overall television viewing in Canada increased 22% during the Games versus the preceding five weeks, with CTV and TSN tripling their average full-day audiences. Rogers Sportsnet was the third most-watched network in Canada during the Games.
Click here to see a list of the Games’ most-watched events and most-watched Canadian medals.
