CBC/Radio-Canada sets Canadian Olympic viewership mark
More than 33.35 million Canadians tuned into some form of Sochi coverage
The CBC/Radio-Canada's multi-platform coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics attracted more viewers than any other Games in Canadian history.
During the Games, more than 33.35 million Canadians tuned in to at least some form of Olympic content produced by the CBC/Radio-Canada.
The highlight was Team Canada's 3-0 gold medal win over Team Sweden in men's hockey on Sunday, which drew approximately 15 million Canadians with an average audience of 8.5 million.
"There is a long tradition of world-class Olympic coverage from Canada’s public broadcaster and the overwhelming audiences our broadcasts garnered tell me we’ve lived up to – if not exceeded – the expectations we had when we secured the broadcast rights just 18 months ago," said Heather Conway, the CBC's executive vice president of English Services.
Canadians tuned into the CBC's digital platforms in unprecedented numbers as well.
During the course of the Olympics (Feb. 6-23), cbc.ca/olympics and olympiques.radio-canada.ca received more than 256 million website views, while more Canadians viewed the CBC/Radio-Canada's digital content via desktop than the entirety of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
"Sochi 2014 set the bar in terms of how an Olympic Games has to be covered," said Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of sports properties. "For the first time ever, Canadians were able to see what they wanted from wherever they were in Canada at any time they wanted it and CBC/Radio-Canada is proud to have made that possible."
More than 2.5 million Canadians downloaded the Sochi Games app, which attracted more than 380 million views -- for a combined total of more than 636 million views.
Canadians consumed almost twice as much online content as the 2010 Vancouver Games, with 10.7 million people tuning into online streams while watching over 14 million hours of video content.