As violence erupted on the streets of Vancouver last night following the Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup victory, viewers nationally and locally chose CTV for live coverage. From 11:30 p.m. – 2 a.m. ET, CTV News Channel averaged 317,000 viewers, more than 8.5 times its typical audience in that timeslot and making it the most watched specialty channel in Canada overall last night. The audience was nearly three times that of CBC News Network (112,000 viewers). Reaching more than one million Canadians overall, coverage actually peaked at 1:07 a.m. ET on CTV News Channel with 410,000 viewers.
In Vancouver, CTV was the first local network to begin broadcasting live coverage of the riot beginning at 8:07 p.m. PT, and had the longest sustained coverage of any local network with nearly four hours of live reporting. By 10:30 p.m., more viewers were watching CTV than CBC and Global. Coverage peaked at 10:58 p.m. PT with a 12.6 Rating and 431,000 viewers. Averaging 229,000 viewers, CTV’s audience was more than double its season-to-date average in all key adult demos.
With live helicopter coverage, CTV was also the only network that reported live from the heart of the riot zone. CTV was the first network to provide live interviews with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and B.C. Solicitor-General Shirley Bond.
“While I am not proud of what happened in our city last night, I am proud of our team’s coverage,” said Tom Haberstroh, Vice-President and General Manager, CTV British Columbia. “When it mattered most, we were there for our viewers.”
Source: BBM Canada
