Massive audiences for Olympic opening ceremony
February 13, 2010 · 11 Comments
CTV’s telecast of the Vancouver Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday rates as the most watched show ever on Canadian television.
An average audience of 13.3 million viewers tuned into the three and half hour telecast, moving it well past the 10.3 million who watched the men’s hockey gold medal game (Canada-United States) at the Salt Lake Games in 2002 on the CBC.
The telecast earned an 84 audience share, meaning 84 per cent of the televisions in use on Friday night were tuned into the show.
The CTV telecast was carried on 11 different TV platforms, in 11 different languages.
In the United States, NBC also drew a huge American audience, the largest for a non-U.S. Games in 16 years.
The network’s telecast was watched by 32.6 million viewers, 10 million above and 47 higher than the 22.2 million for Turin in 2006. The telecast earned a national rating of 17.3 (percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in), for an increase of 35 per cent over Turin (12.8).
NBC carried the Vancouver opening ceremony live, with a few exceptions on the West Coast. The Turin telecast were tape delayed.
NBC’s average audience was just under the 33.8 million who tuned in for Lillehammer Winter Games in 1994, which had special interest because of the Tanya Harding scandal.
Despite the embarrassing technical glitch during the cauldron lighting finale, the Vancouver opening ceremony was praised by Washington Post media critic Tom Shales, who wrote, “the Winter Games got off to a splendiferous start with the Opening Ceremony – with images that rivaled that of ‘Avatar.’ — All of it was rendered splendid by NBC’s HD cameras and enhanced by discreet commentary from the anchors.”
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Bill, how much money will this ctv/rogers tandem lose? I read it could be as high as 100 million once exchange rates and their vancouver expenses are all counted? any idea? anyways, thanks for the great columns. we miss your column.
PPM allows for almost instanteous data collection/release for TV and Radio now.
Wow. That's more than double what I though it would get at most. I guess I'm in the minority who did something else last night but I did catch some of the repeat this morning.
How did the ratings get released so early? I thought weekend numbers aren't released until Monday afternoon.
Yes, CTV-Rogers is paying to get the audience figures early.
I heard CTV was releasing daily ratings updates during the games.
Wow. if you thought it would only get 6-7m, you're out of touch with mainstream Cdn thinking in regards to the Olympics.
You're telling me the Opening Cermonies would only get similar ratings as the Grey Cup or the Super Bowl? What Canada do you live in?
Yes. 7 million would still be a huge audience. It's the Opening Ceremonies not the Gold Medal game and on a Friday night. And I don't remember anyone predicting this many viewers.
Sorry if I underestimated how many people had nothing else to do.
Mr. Houston, regarding the new people meters, isn't it a bit unfair to call this the most-watched ever (or at least misleading by the consortium?) For example, if people meters existed for the '72 summit series, or for the Salt Lake gold medal game, surely the number could have rivalled this, if not exceeded it. I don't know anyone who didn't watch the gold medal game in Salt Lake, and yet that number did not include out of home tuning (I watched in a bar with hundreds). Cheers, Tim K.
Yes, you're right. It is an apples and oranges thing. If the portable people meters had been used at Salt Lake, the audience for the Canada-U.S. gold medal hockey game would have been much larger.
population was 22m in 72 – we're now at 33m – just based on that it would be naturally anything now would be the most watched.