TORONTO – BBM Nielsen’s early overnight data says that 3.65 million Canadians watched the Grey Cup on TSN and RDS, up 5% over last year, when it was on the CBC.
On TSN, 2.439 million Canadians watched the Calgary Stampeders defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the 96th edition of the Grey Cup, while an additional 1.215 million viewers watched French-language coverage on RDS.
Audience numbers for the broadcast on TSN peaked at 3.14 million viewers between 8:56 and 8:57 p.m. ET, just as time expired on the Alouettes’ failed final attempt to tie the game in the fourth quarter.
This year marked the first time the Grey Cup has aired on TSN.
With the Grey Cup being played in Montreal and the Alouettes playing in front of more than 66,000 fans, a record number of viewers tuned in to RDS’s French-language game coverage. With 1.215 million viewers, it was the most-watched football broadcast in the French sports network’s history – surpassing the 2002 Grey Cup by 19%.
Overall, audience for the Grey Cup on TSN and RDS was up substantially in the key advertising demographics compared to last year: viewers 18-34 increased by 17% and viewers 25-54 increased by 10%.
The game itself capped off a big work week for the crews of both TSN and RDS. The two networks covered Grey Cup Week with an unprecedented amount of pre-game coverage live from Grey Cup Village in Montreal. TSN delivered more than 20 hours Grey Cup coverage and, for the first time ever, expanded pre-game television coverage of the Grey Cup to two full days. TSN’s full-day (eight hours) of Grey Cup programming on Saturday reached 1.3 million viewers throughout the day.
"We set out to deliver unprecedented CFL coverage and we are absolutely thrilled that nearly 1 in 3 Canadians – more than 10 million – tuned in to TSN and RDS this week for Grey Cup programming," said Phil King, president of TSN, in the press release.
The big game was a fitting end to a strong CFL season for TSN. With all 72 regular season games on the sports network, the CFL saw a 6% increase in total audience compared to 2007, when games aired on both CBC and TSN.
TSN.ca was an important presence online as well. During the game 1,400 fans logged on to TSN’s Duane Forde’s live in-game chat and the site produced close to one million page views for CFL content during Grey Cup week. TSN.ca also saw 69% increase in video plays for CFL only content compared to Grey Cup Week last year.
