One of the biggest annual events on Canadian television, Sunday night’s 107th GREY CUP presented by Shaw captivated viewers nationwide with this year’s audience growing 19% over 2018, according to overnight data from Numeris. An average audience of 3.9 million viewers tuned in to TSN (3.7 million) and RDS (252,000) to watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL’s iconic annual championship game.
Overall, nearly nine million unique viewers, or nearly one-in-four Canadians (24%), watched some or all of the Blue Bombers’ 33-12 victory over the Tiger-Cats. The game achieved a 31% share, meaning nearly one in three Canadians watching television on Sunday night were tuned into the game.
The audience for the 107th GREY CUP presented by Shaw peaked at 4.6 million viewers as the Blue Bombers charged to their first GREY CUP victory since 1990, ending a 29-year championship drought.
As the most-watched program of the day, the 107th GREY CUP presented by Shaw positioned TSN as the most-watched network in Canada on Sunday.
Additional audience highlights:
- Livestreaming audiences for the championship game on TSN Digital platforms marked an increase of 77% compared to last year’s GREY CUP
- The high-energy performance by four-time Grammy Award-winner Keith Urban during the Freedom Mobile Halftime Show attracted an average audience of 4.1 million viewers
- More than 9.6 million Canadians watched some part of the expansive GREY CUP coverage on TSN and RDS throughout Sunday
- An average audience of 1.8 million viewers tuned in to watch JUNO award-winning Canadian rock band The Beaches in the Sirius XM Kickoff Show
- TSN’s official social media platforms garnered significant engagement throughout GREY CUP Sunday, with more than 4.3 million impressions, 2.9 million video views, and 224,000 interactions on Instagram and Twitter
Once again, the GREY CUP proved to be one of the marquee television properties for Canadian advertisers and a coveted platform for key sponsors including Nissan, Shaw, Sirius XM, Freedom Mobile, 7-Eleven, LeoVegas, Safeway, and more.
The 107th GREY CUP presented by Shaw was the culmination of a successful CFL ON TSN post-season that saw the CFL’s Western and Eastern Finals attract an average audience of 1.3 million viewers on TSN and RDS – a 29% increase from 2018 – and reach 5.4 million unique viewers. Livestreaming audiences for the 2019 CFL PLAYOFFS were up 75% over 2018.
The 2019 CFL season on TSN and RDS reached nearly 16 million Canadian viewers, or 44% of the country’s population.
Source: Numeris, Total Canada, RDS Audience based on TSN Start and End Times
