TORONTO – The end of the 2011/2012 television season sparked a war of press releases from Canada’s private broadcasters headlined by declarations like “we’re the most watched!” and “we’re growing the fastest!”
After cutting through the hype, what’s clear is that with the exception of NHL hockey, Canadian audiences still opt for the big American hit shows. Of the top 20 most-watched shows this season, The Big Bang Theory, The Amazing Race and Survivor ranked number one, two and three for total viewers, with all averaging audiences north of 2.5 million. CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada (east) ranked ninth with 2.07 million while Sportsnet’s Hometown Hockey placed twentieth with 1.73 million total viewers.
CTV went so far as to crown itself as Canada's most-watched network in total viewers and key demos for the last decade, and claimed to deliver more top 20 programs than all other networks combined. It also declared its fledgling CTV Two network the country’s third most-watched private network, (after CTV and Global), citing 26% growth in the adults 25-54 demo, 27% growth with adults 18-49, and a 36% increase in adults aged 18-34 nationally in primetime.
"For more than a decade now, CTV delivers Canada's favourite programming year after year after year," said Phil King, president of CTV programming and sports, in its press release. "CTV's continued programming leadership and durability of success has made it a secure investment, for both viewers and advertisers alike. People know that if it's big, it's on CTV."
CTV’s cross-town rival Shaw Media was quick to issue its own dispatch highlighting Global’s biggest primetime shows and audience increases on its specialty channels Slice (+13%), HGTV (+12%), Showcase (+9%), Action (+5%), National Geographic Channel (+4%) and Food Network (+2%) in the adult 25-54 demo.
“We’re thrilled by the growth we’ve seen over the past year across our portfolio,” said Barbara Williams, SVP of content, in that company's press release. “Our shows are only getting bigger as audiences consume them across all platforms and share their enthusiasm via social media”.
Both CTV and Global also reported increases in online viewing.
CTV said that its unique video viewers averaged 1.68 million each month this past broadcast season, which is up 143% from the previous year. It also claimed that it saw 113% growth year-over-year in minutes of video watched per viewer.
Global added that its video app received almost 1 million downloads, and to date, there have been 9 million full episode views, an increase of 300%. In addition, GlobalTV.com grew 21% over last spring with 146 million video views.
Both Shaw Media and CTV will stage their 2012-13 upfront presentations for advertisers this week. Citytv (surprisingly silent on the hype front) gets going first with its upfront today in Toronto.
– Lesley Hunter
