TORONTO – The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil on CBC/Radio-Canada was the most-watched FIFA World Cup ever with 30.7 million Canadians tuning in overall, the national broadcaster said.
Nearly 89% of the population (30.7 million Canadians) tuned in to at least some coverage of the tournament between June 12 – July 13 on CBC/Radio-Canada or its broadcast partners across all platforms, compared to 86% in 2010. Of those 30.7 million people, 6.6 million (or one-in-five Canadians) tuned in to watch a live game online.
Sunday’s thrilling Final match that saw Germany defeat Argentina 1-0 in the second half of extra time was the most-watched match of the tournament, with an average audience of more than 4.93 million viewers (2+), edging the 2010 Final for the record as the most-watched FIFA World Cup broadcast in Canadian history. The audience peaked on CBC at 7.4 million viewers at 5:35 PM ET in the final minute of play. Overall, more than 11.3 million Canadians tuned in for at least part of the English-language championship match broadcast with almost half a million watching on a digital platform.
Additional audience highlights include:
Television
– Live matches over the course of the entire tournament saw an average audience of nearly 1.7 million viewers, an increase of 39% over the 2010 event;
– Nearly 60% of all television viewing in Canada between 2:29-5:36 PM ET on Sunday was to the Germany/Argentina Final match;
– ICI Radio-Canada Télé’s French-language television broadcast of the Final match was viewed by an average of 843,000 viewers, an increase of 48% compared to the 2010 Final;
– Overall, 5.9 million francophone viewers in Quebec (or 83% of the province’s francophone population) watched at least some French-language FIFA World Cup coverage on ICI Radio Canada Télé or TVA Sports during the tournament;
– Saturday’s third place match between the Netherlands and Brazil garnered an average audience of nearly 2.3 million viewers which represents an increase of 37% over the 2010 third place match.
Digital
– Over the course of the tournament, Canadians logged 13.5 million hours of video viewing across all digital platforms;
– Traffic to CBC’s FIFA World Cup webpage saw increased traffic throughout the 2014 tournament compared to 2010 with 45% more page views and 51% more video views;
– CBC’s FIFA World Cup App brought to you by Bell and its French-language counterpart were downloaded more than 1.1 million times.
Soccer coverage continues on CBC/Radio-Canada next month with FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 as the world’s best take on Canada’s young soccer stars. The tournament takes place in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton from August 5 – 24.
