With the unprecedented Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 underway, Canadian audiences are engaging on all platforms to cheer on Team Canada and athletes from around the world. Since the beginning of the Games until Monday, July 26, more than half of all Canadians have watched television coverage on CBC/Radio-Canada, with 20.3 million viewers tuning in on either an English or French TV network to date and more watching CBC than any other network in Canada. Additionally, CBC is marking record digital audiences for Tokyo 2020 with 8.4 million video views on CBC digital platforms so far, an increase of 65 percent compared to the same period during Pyeongchang 2018, which had a similar time difference of 11 to 16 hours for viewers in time zones across Canada.
CBC Tokyo 2020 Audience Highlights:
Since the start of the Games, more Canadians have watched CBC than any other television network in Canada during both daytime and primetime programming, with audiences increasing despite the summer weekend and pandemic restrictions easing. The Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 23 reached 6.5 million Canadians and was the most-watched primetime program in Canada among viewers 2+ and 25-54 with peak viewership of 1.361 million at 8:53 p.m and an average audience of over 1 million for the entire broadcast. CBC’s primetime television programming from 6:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m garnered an average audience of 1.112 million on Saturday, July 24, increasing by 19 percent on Sunday, July 25 to 1.325 million. Daytime also attracted strong viewership, with an average audience 10 times higher than weekends during the regular season.
- The three most-watched Tokyo 2020 moments on CBC to date were Saturday, July 24 at 10:53 p.m. when 1.918 million watched Canada take silver in the women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay; Monday, July 26 at 9:54 p.m. when 2.2 million tuned in for the start of the women’s 100m backstroke; and Sunday, July 25 at 10:06 p.m. when 2.3 million watched swimmer Maggie Mac Neil receive Canada’s first gold medal in the women’s 100m butterfly.
CBC’s digital and streaming platforms including CBC.ca, the CBC Olympics App and the free CBC Gem streaming service grew historic audiences each day over the weekend, with Canadians watching 8.4 million video views since the beginning of Tokyo 2020, up 65 percent over Pyeongchang 2018. In total so far, Canadians have consumed 3.5 million hours of digital and streaming Olympic content, with time spent on CBC digital platforms at record high levels for each day of the opening weekend compared to last year’s highest single-day total on March 16, 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Connected TVs are accounting for about 67 percent of the total time spent streaming Tokyo 2020 content on CBC Gem.
- The most-watched live video on digital platforms during the opening weekend was men’s skateboarding street on CBC.ca, with the women & men’s surfing preliminary rounds a close second.
- The most-watched on-demand video on digital during the opening weekend was swimmer Penny Oleksiak’s silver medal win on CBC.ca.
CBC will continue to offer extensive live and encore coverage of Tokyo 2020 through to August 8, including the Closing Ceremony. Canadians can visit cbc.ca/tokyo2020 or download the CBC Olympics App for the full schedule.
TV Data Source: Numeris TV Meter, CBC Total, P2+, 2a-2a, Total Canada, AMA, DlyRch, & CumRch, generated by InfoSys+TV. Based on preliminary overnight data.
Digital Data Source: Adobe Analytics, 2021
