SINCE THE BEGINNING of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games until Monday, July 26, more than half of all Canadians have watched TV coverage of the Games on CBC/Radio-Canada, with 20.3 million viewers tuning in on an English or French TV network to date, according to a CBC/Radio-Canada press release citing Numeris TV meter data.
In addition, CBC says it is marking record digital audiences for Tokyo 2020, with Canadians consuming 8.4 million video views on CBC digital platforms so far, which represents a 65% increase compared to the same period during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.
CBC’s digital and streaming platforms include CBC.ca, the CBC Olympics App and the free CBC Gem streaming service. In total so far, Canadians have consumed 3.5 million hours of digital and streaming Olympic content on CBC platforms, according to data from Adobe Analytics.
On CBC TV, the most-watched Tokyo 2020 moment was Sunday, July 25 at 10:06 p.m. ET when 2.3 million viewers watched swimmer Maggie Mac Neil win Canada’s first gold medal in the women’s 100-metre butterfly.
The next two most-watched moments on CBC TV were Monday, July 26 at 9:54 p.m. ET when 2.2 million tuned in for the start of the women’s 100-metre backstroke, which saw Kylie Masse capture the silver medal; and Saturday, July 24 at 10:53 p.m. ET when 1.918 million watched Canada take silver in the women’s 4×100 metre freestyle relay.
CBC’s rebroadcast of the Opening Ceremony during the evening of Friday, July 23 “reached 6.5 million Canadians and was the most-watched primetime program in Canada among viewers 2+ and 25-54 with peak viewership of 1.361 million at 8:53 p.m. and an average audience of over 1 million for the entire broadcast,” according to CBC’s press release.
CBC says its primetime TV coverage from 6:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. ET garnered an average audience of 1.112 million on Saturday, July 24, followed by a 19% increase on Sunday, July 25 to 1.325 million.
On the digital side, CBC says connected TVs have accounted for about 67% of the total time spent streaming Tokyo 2020 content on CBC Gem.
The most-watched live video on CBC’s digital platforms during the opening weekend of the Games was the men’s skateboarding street competition on CBC.ca, followed by the women’s and men’s surfing preliminary rounds as a close second.
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