For a second consecutive year, Corus Entertainment’s YTV continued its reign as the #1 holiday specialty network for kids and families. From December 1 to December 28, 2014, the channel was #1 with K2-11 and K6-11 and families. The channel was also #1 for kids across all Canadian networks. YTV shared top honours with Corus’ W Network for the #1 spot among specialty networks with W18-49, a 13 per cent increase in YTV’s audience from last year.
Every day at 6 p.m. in December, YTV’s Merry 6mas programming schedule showcased a mix of holiday classics, specials and movie premieres as well as holiday-themed episodes of the network’s animated and live-action series.
Topping the list of holiday favourites were the Home Alone movies. YTV drew in the highest audience across all networks on K2-11, K6-11, W18-49, and W25-54 during the airing of the network’s Home Alone marathon on Sunday, December 21 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The audience peaked during Home Alone 4 with a total of 672,000 (2+) viewers tuning in.
YTV’s Top 10 most watched holiday movies and specials in December include:
Abominable Christmas (December 10)
Toy Story That Time Forgot (December 12)
Home Alone (December 19)
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (December 20)
Home Alone 2 (December 21)
Home Alone 4 (December 21)
Toy Story That Time Forgot (December 22)
Legend of Frosty the Snowman (December 23)
Pink Panther: A Very Pink Christmas (December 23)
A Garfield Christmas Special (December 24)
“We’re thrilled that once again YTV’s December programming has become a holiday tradition with more kids and families than ever tuning in,” said Jocelyn Hamilton, Vice President, Programming and Original Production, Corus Kids. “We’re proud to be the destination for the holiday classics that Canadians grew up watching, as well as the network for kids and families to discover new holiday movies and specials together.”
YTV’s Merry 6mas schedule was supported with a four-week campaign targeting moms through distribution of YTV’s holiday calendar via in-store promotions at Rexall stores and a digital buy across multiple lifestyle websites and social platforms featuring a printable and shareable calendar. A separate digital and on-air campaign was developed to reach kids. Additionally, in Ontario, YTV’s street teams attended holiday events across the province to distribute the channel’s Merry 6mas calendar.
“The holidays are a treasured time for families and we wanted to make it easy for busy moms to know exactly when and where to find their favourite holiday movies and specials,” said Anne Kane Jeffries, Vice President, Marketing, Corus Kids.
In the New Year, YTV fans can look forward to a new season of the live-action comedy series Some Assembly Required on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. ET/PT and the launch of the new, teen drama series Open Heart, on Tuesday, January20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Source: Numeris (BBM Canada), 12/1/2014 – 12/28/2014, includes Overnight Data, Total Canada, Ranker based on Average Minute Audience.
