TORONTO — Demonstrating the pent-up demand for the return of live sports, a total of 10.7 million viewers tuned in last Saturday and Sunday to Sportsnet for the resumption of the NHL and NBA seasons, according to the Rogers-owned sports broadcaster.
Beginning on Saturday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT, Sportsnet aired more than 33 hours of live sports coverage across its TV channels, CBC, Citytv, the Sportsnet Radio Network and via stream on SN Now and NHL Live.
Scoring a 19% audience share, Sportsnet’s coverage garnered a combined average minute audience (AMA) of 821,000 viewers on Saturday and Sunday. Overall, in the adult 25-54 demographic, Sportsnet was home to eight of the top 10 most-watched programs of the weekend, says the news release. In addition to TV audiences, sports fans also started more than two million streams on SN Now and NHL Live, the release says.
As the exclusive national English-language broadcaster of NHL games, Sportsnet aired all 10 Stanley Cup qualifier and round robin matchups over the weekend. Overall, 9.58 million Canadians watched all or some of Sportsnet’s NHL broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday.
The Toronto Raptors’ return to play on Saturday night was broadcast exclusively on Sportsnet One, Citytv and SN Now. In total, Sportsnet reached 2.59 million fans from coast-to-coast-to-coast throughout the evening. Garnering an AMA of 890,000 Canadians, the broadcast was the second most-watched regular season Raptors broadcast ever on Sportsnet.
For more information about the audience breakdowns of Sportsnet’s coverage of NHL games featuring Canadian teams this past weekend, please click here.
