TORONTO – CTV and corporate sibling RDS attracted an audience of 4.3 million for Sunday evening’s Super Bowl broadcast.
Nearly 9.5 million Canadians tuned into some part of the game – a thriller that was decided in the final minute.
Preliminary overnight data from BBM Nielsen Media Research confirms that Super Bowl XLIII attracted a 48.4 share for men A25-54 – meaning nearly half of the English-speaking population in this demo watched the game.
The telecast peaked at 4.6 million viewers at 10:02 p.m., as Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver Santonio Holmes made a dramatic end-zone catch with 42 seconds left in the fourth quarter, clinching the Steelers’ record-setting sixth championship – the most-ever for a single franchise in NFL history.
“Audiences like this only come around a few times a year,” said Susanne Boyce, president, creative, content and channels, CTV Inc.
“This year’s Super Bowl audience confirms the power of mass media,” said Rick Brace, president, revenue, business planning and sports, CTV Inc. “Thank you to the dozens of advertisers who participated in the most-watched broadcast of the year.”
An average audience of 3.6 million watched the broadcast on CTV, close to the 3.7 million that watched Super Bowl XLI on Global in 2007. Another 691,000 watched the French-language broadcast on RDS.
The season-ender caps a successful year for the NFL in Canada, with regular season audiences up 27% on CTV and up 12% on TSN compared to last year, says the press release.
