Canadians tuning into World Cup in record numbers, CBC says

Monday, June 14, 2010

Written By: CBC
Published By: The Canadian Press
Posted by: Jayanta Saha



TORONTO - Canadians are tuning into the World Cup in record numbers, according to CBC.

Saturday's game between the U.S. and England averaged 2.275 million viewers, the highest Canadian audience ever for a preliminary-round World Cup game, according to CBC.

But a new ratings system was introduced in September which has seen sports ratings skyrocket in Canada so comparing the numbers is difficult.

Hockey still rules in Canada, with the highest-rated game of the recent Stanley Cup final drawing an average audience of 4.077 million. The Olympic hockey final in Vancouver drew a whopping 10.6 million viewers to CTV.

Five of the first eight games at the World Cup averaged more than one million CBC viewers.

Sunday's game between Germany and Australia was the second-highest rated game on the opening weekend, drawing an average of 1.660 million viewers. Argentina-Nigeria on Saturday was third with 1.305 million.

The opening game between South Africa and Mexico on Friday attracted 906,000 CBC viewers.

In South Africa, that game drew more than 10 million viewers.

FIFA says 87 per cent of people watching television at home in South Africa last Friday saw SABC1 and SuperSport 3 broadcasts of the 1-1 draw.

That's nearly three million more than South Africa's highest-rated sports broadcast last year, when the host team played Brazil in the Confederations Cup.

FIFA says an average of almost one in five Mexicans with televisions on at home watched last Friday.

In the U.S., Spanish-language channel Univision averaged 5.4 million viewers for the opening game — double its audience for Germany opening the 2006 World Cup against Costa Rica.

And U.S. Soccer said Saturday's American game against England on ABC was the most viewed World Cup first-round match and fifth most-viewed World Cup match ever south of the border.

The game averaged 12,956,000 viewers.

The telecast ranks fifth all-time behind three World Cup finals, including the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final, and the American round of 16 match against Brazil in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, all of which were televised on ABC.

Citation: CBC. (2010, June 14). Canadians tuning into World Cup in record numbers, CBC says. Retrieved from http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/sports/article/551005--canadians-tuning-into-world-cup-in-record-numbers-cbc-says