Yesterday’s Germany vs. Argentina Final was the most-watched match of the tournament with more than 4.9 million viewers watching on CBC
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ has come to an end and Canadians have shown that soccer is more popular now than ever by consuming more coverage of this year’s tournament than any other in the past. Nearly 89 per cent of the population (30.7 million Canadians) tuned in to at least some coverage of the tournament from June 12th-July 13th on CBC/Radio-Canada or its broadcast partners across all platforms, compared to 86 per cent in 2010. Of those 30.7 million people, 6.6 million (or one-in-five Canadians) tuned in to watch a live game online.
Canadians continue to turn to CBC for the best in sports coverage and the audience turnout we’ve experienced with this World Cup is a great sign heading into our upcoming slate of major international amateur athletic competitions,” said Jeffrey Orridge, executive director, sports properties and general manager, Olympics, CBC. “We could not bring an event of this magnitude to Canadians across multiple platforms without the continued hard work and dedication of the men and women behind the scenes and in front of the cameras who make CBC Canada’s best venue for watching world class sporting events.”
Yesterday’s thrilling Final match that saw Germany defeat Argentina 1-0 in the second half of extra time was the most-watched match of the tournament with an average audience of more than 4.93 million viewers (2+), edging the 2010 Final for the record as the most-watched FIFA World Cup™ broadcast in Canadian history. The audience peaked on CBC at 7.4 million viewers at 5:35 p.m. ET in the final minute of play. Overall, more than 11.3 million Canadians tuned in for at least part of the English-language championship match broadcast with almost half a million watching on a digital platform.
Additional audience highlights are as follows:
Television:
•Live matches over the course of the entire 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ tournament saw an average audience of nearly 1.7 million viewers, an increase of 39 per cent over the 2010 event
•Nearly 60 per cent of all television viewing in Canada between 2:29-5:36pm ET on Sunday was to the Germany/Argentina match
•On average, more people watched yesterday’s Final match than each of the 2013 Grey Cup game, the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic and any single game from the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs
•ICI Radio-Canada Télé‘s French-language television broadcast of the Final match was viewed by an average of 843,000 viewers, an increase of 48 per cent compared to the 2010 Final
•Overall, 5.9 million francophone viewers in Quebec (or 83 per cent of the province’s francophone population) watched at least some French-language FIFA World Cup™ coverage on ICI Radio-Canada Télé or TVA Sports during the tournament
•Saturday’s Third Place match between the Netherlands and Brazil garnered an average audience of nearly 2.3 million viewers which represents an increase of 37 per cent over the 2010 Third Place match
•Ninety-six per cent of new Canadians* tuned into FIFA World Cup™ coverage over the course of the tournament
Digital:
•Over the course of the tournament, Canadians logged 13.5 million hours of video viewing across all digital platforms
•Traffic to CBC’s FIFA World Cup™ webpage saw increased traffic throughout the 2014 tournament compared to 2010 with 45 per cent more page views and 51 per cent more video views
•CBC’s FIFA World Cup™ App brought to you by Bell and its French-language counterpart were downloaded more than 1.1 million times
•Of all new Canadians tuning in, 33 per cent watched live coverage online, compared to 19 per cent of the total population
CIBC Soccer Nation:
•More than 30,000 Canadians experienced CIBC Soccer Nation at regional events across Canada throughout the tournament
Soccer coverage continues on CBC/Radio-Canada next month with FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 as the world’s best take on Canada’s young soccer stars. The tournament takes place in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton from August 5th-24th.
Sources: Numeris (formerly BBM Canada), Adobe Site Catalyst, Adobe HBX, Akamai, Apple and Google
*Note: New Canadians are defined in Numeris data as those who first learned a language other than English or French
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