TORONTO – It’s official. Team Canada’s gold medal win at last month’s Olympics is the largest television audience ever achieved in Canada.
New data from BBM Canada confirmed that the game is the most-watched television broadcast in Canadian history, with a final audience of 16.7 million viewers.
It was also confirmed by Nielsen that, contrary to popular Canadian legend, the recent game delivered far more viewers than Game 8 of the classic Summit Series between Canada and U.S.S.R. on September 28, 1972, which had a reported television audience of 4.26 million viewers.
“There is no question the Vancouver 2010 gold medal game set an audience record for Canada, period,” said Jim MacLeod, president of BBM Canada, in a statement. “Even if you take into account Canada’s larger population in 2010 compared to 2002 and 1972, the 2010 number is the largest by a comfortable margin. This just confirms the great support by Canadians for our Olympians.”
