TORONTO – When Brazil and Croatia take to the pitch this afternoon in the opening match of the 2014 World Cup, it will kick off a month of record-breaking Canadian TV, online and mobile audiences, according to a new survey from Toronto’s Solutions Research Group.
According to a national survey of 1,000 Canadians by SRG in early June, 52% will follow at least some of the World Cup action nationally on TV, online, social media and mobile and 32% will follow very/somewhat closely.
Based on these numbers, the audience for the World Cup final could easily break the six-million viewers mark, setting a new record. TV will be big, of course, with 88% saying they will follow the action on television while half of those following (49%) will use digital means including streaming and mobile (we hope the CBC’s app is up to the task and performs as admirably as their Olympic effort).
When asked if they believe soccer is more or less popular than 10 years ago, 60% of Canadians aged 18 or older say it’s more popular (35% say it’s about the same, 5% say less).
In open ended comments, five major reasons given for increased popularity were:
- more availability on TV and more accessibility in ‘prime time’ spots in particular (“not just 3 am”)
- the presence of three MLS franchises in Canada’s major markets
- the success of Canada’s women’s soccer team
- much broader youth participation in soccer
- respondents also noted continued immigration from countries where soccer is a major passion
In a separate study of 2,371 families on youth sports also released this week, SRG found that soccer is the number one team sport played by Canadian kids (767,000 youth 3-17 play) followed by hockey (531,000), basketball (354,000) and volleyball (236,000).
The Canadian Youth Sports Report also found that of the top five image attributes for soccer among parents who participated in the survey, all are positive: that it’s a major international sport, that it’s good for boys and girls, that it’s fun and that it develops social skills.
Compared to other team sports, soccer has done a particularly good job at attracting girls to the pitch – nearly 300,000 girls 3-17 play soccer in an organized fashion in Canada and many of them will be looking forward to this summer’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup being held this August and the 2015 Women’s World Cup – both of which are being hosted by Canada.
The Canadian Youth Sports Report Results have been taken from 2,371 30-minute online interviews where 1,300 were done with families with 3-6 year olds and 7-12 year olds and another 1,071 interviews with families of teens aged 13-17 conducted in November/December 2013.
