TORONTO – Some 25.8 million Canadians (or 72% of the population) watched the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 on CTV, TSN, and RDS, say the broadcasters.
Quoting Numeris data, the Bell Media networks said that an average audience of 3.9 million viewers watched the final match on Sunday, July 15, with audiences peaking at 5.4 million viewers at 12:53 PM ET as France notched their second-ever FIFA World Cup victory. France’s win over Croatia was the most-watched match of the tournament, with a total reach of 9.3 million unique Canadian viewers, or 26% of Canadians, tuning in.
Additionally, the England vs. Croatia semi-final match was the second-most-watched match of the tournament, attracting an average audience of 2.5 million viewers on CTV, TSN, and RDS.
TSN digital platforms recorded strong numbers throughout the tournament for both live and on-demand video content, with the FIFA World Cup becoming the most-streamed event in the network’s history. Throughout the tournament, TSN digital platforms recorded 7.3 million video starts, with TSN Direct users accounting for 38% of all live stream starts (nearly 1.2 million total). Meanwhile, the England vs. Croatia semi-final was the most-streamed match, with more than 155,000 video starts.
TSN added that FIFA World Cup videos accounted for more than 16 million YouTube views, representing nearly 739,000 hours of video content consumed through YouTube alone. Its top tweet accumulating nearly 1,500 retweets, its most-viewed video surpassed 80,000 views, its Instagram account featured two videos with more than 560,000 views each, and its top Facebook video received 94,000 views.
