VANCOUVER – The 2010 Olympic Winter Games were a success no matter how you slice it, and that includes audiences.
According to Canada’s Olympic broadcast media consortium, 99% of the country’s population, or 33,148,000 Canadians, “experienced” the Games through its myriad of platforms on television, on-line, in print or on radio over the past 17 days.
Not surprisingly, hockey was the biggest draw for viewers. Sunday’s gold medal men’s hockey game officially became the most-watched television broadcast in Canadian history, with an average audience of 16.6 million viewers. Nearly half of the Canadian population watched the entire game on average, while 80% (or 26.5 million) of Canadians watched some part of the game as it aired across nine television networks in eight languages.
The Games’ Closing Ceremony was the second most-watched broadcast ever, as 14.3 million viewers said goodbye to Vancouver 2010. A total of 24.5 million watched some part of the broadcast.
Other audience highlights from the last few days include:
– More than 19 million viewers watched some part of the Canadian women’s hockey gold medal win over Team USA. The game averaged 7.5 million viewers, while 11.5 million viewers on average watched the medal presentation;
– 18.5 million viewers watched some part of Joannie Rochette’s emotionally-charged performance in the Ladies’ figure skating free skate, in which Canada won a bronze medal. The event peaked at 8.75 million viewers just after her scores were displayed, while 6.9 million viewers watched Rochette receive her medal;
– 18.9 million Canadians sampled the gold medal match in women’s curling, in which Canada’s Cheryl Bernard and her rink won silver. Watched on average by 6.8 million viewers (with 1.8 million viewers on TSN alone), overall coverage peaked at 11.3 million viewers;
– The men’s curling gold medal game where Canada beat Norway was seen by 6.9 million viewers, with the match peaking at 11 million viewers in the final minute. Nearly 17 million viewers watched some part of the event (with an average of 785,000 viewers watching on RDS).
– Freestyle skiing: men’s aerials recorded an average audience of 7.8 million viewers.
The reach of the Games grew by 27%, or 7 million additional Canadians, since the group’s first CUME index of 26 million was issued on Day 1 of the Games.
Canadian Unique Multimedia Engagement (CUME) index is the cumulative reach of all Canadians that engage with the major media platforms offered by the consortium. It is a calibrated summary of the most-trusted audience measurement systems for television, on-line, radio, and print.
– Lesley Hunter
