“Doing better than we usually do,” is not the boast you used to hear from an Olympic broadcaster. The Beijing Games, however, presented all kinds of challenges this winter for both NBC in the States and CBC in Canada. (See photo above.)
Still, CBC found several positives in the report they issued Tuesday after compiling data from Numeris and Adobe Analytics. Here are some of the headlines:
AUDIENCES SPENT MORE TIME WITH CBC DURING BEIJING 2022 THAN ANY
OTHER NETWORK IN CANADA, WITH DIGITAL VIEWING SURPASSING
PYEONGCHANG 2018
Both statements are true. The latter, however, is a given. Digital viewing is way up for everything since the last Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.
As for the second boast: the Numeris Top-30 does not break Games numbers out on a night-by-night basis, but the seven night prime time average for Feb. 8 to 16, issued by Numeris Tuesday, suggests CBC drew an average minute audience of 910,000 viewers with their Olympic coverage. That was enough for 13th place for the week in terms of English Canada’s most-watched shows.
That may not seem like a lot but it will win you most nights given that Global and CTV and City could not counter during the run of the games with several of their big gun NBC simulcasts. Everything from This Is Us to New Amsterdam to six Dick Wolf procedurals (three Chicagos and three Law & Orders) were sitting out the Games.
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CBC’s release emphasized that they did get a lift where they needed it most — among younger viewers. Adults 25-54, for example, made up 31 per cent of their prime time Olympic audience, which has been at 24 percent for English television so far in this 2021-2022 season.
In demos, CBC says they ranked as the most-watched network in Canada among audiences 25-54 for 12 out of 16 Olympic nights in prime time among younger viewers.
Still, CBC doesn’t appear to have scored any two- or even one-a-half million nights Feb. 9-16 in terms of AMAs.
In digital totals, Beijing 2022 ranks as the most-streamed Games ever on CBC Gem. Again, it would be news if it was not. CBC Gem launched in December of 2018. These were CBC Gem’s first Winter Games.
CBC’s release Tuesday did break out where their viewership spiked in one minute highs recorded throughout the games. Here is their Top-5 Beijing moments:
- Day 12 – Wed., Feb. 16: 2.7 million watched Canada take on USA in the women’s hockey gold medal game at 11:41 p.m. ET (CBC, TSN and Sportsnet)
- Day 3 – Mon., Feb. 7: 1.839 million watched the women’s freestyle skiing big air final at 10:05 p.m. ET (CBC and TSN2)
- Day 8 – Sat., Feb. 12: 1.81 million watched the Canada vs. USA men’s curling match at 10:29 pm ET. (CBC and TSN)
- Day 4 – Tues., Feb. 8: 1.754 million watched the women’s snowboard halfpipe qualifying round at 10:22 pm ET (CBC and TSN)
- Day 5 – Wed., Feb. 9: 1.675 million watched the women’s snowboard halfpipe final at 9:45 p.m. ET (CBC)
