While there were no reported cases of the much-publicized Zika Virus, Canadians did catch a (milder than before) case of Olympic fever during CBC/Radio-Canada’s opening weekend coverage for the Rio Games.
An estimated 68% of the population – approximately 23.8 million people – tuned in to the public broadcaster’s weekend Games coverage, with all three of its programming blocks experiencing growth over the course of the weekend – most notably a 61% increase in the primetime block from Saturday to Sunday.
The broadcaster’s digital coverage via CBC.ca/Olympics and the CBC app generated a total of 23.9 million pageviews and 3.6 million video views between Friday’s Opening Ceremony and Sunday night.
The most-watched moment of the Games so far occurred at 9:06 p.m. EST on Sunday, when 3.4 million Canadians watched Penny Oleksiak capture silver in the women’s 100m butterfly. It was her second medal of the Games, following a bronze in the women’s 4×100 metre freestyle relay the previous night.
Coverage of Friday’s Opening Ceremony attracted an average audience of 4.4 million viewers, a significant 31.2% decline from the 6.4 million people who tuned in to the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics. More than 13 million Canadians watched the Opening Ceremony between 7-11 p.m.
Ratings for the Opening Ceremony were also down in the U.S., with Bloomberg reporting NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony was down 35% from the London Games, falling to 26.5 million from 40.7 million four years ago.
Americans also took to social media to complain about excessive advertising during the Opening Ceremony, although The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the ad-load actually fell 19% – from 41 minutes and 30 seconds (72 ad units, including both paid ads and network promos) to 33 minutes and 45 seconds (54 ad units).
The Wall Street Journal quoted an NBC spokesman as saying the complaints may stem from an increased intolerance of TV commercials , created by the viewing public’s increased on commercial-free services such as Netflix and HBO.
CBC spokesman Simon Bassett told Marketing the broadcaster has heard from viewers saying they want to see fewer breaks in its Olympic coverage, but said it had “not experienced an overwhelming volume of this kind of feedback.”
Bassett added that “many more viewers” have indicated how much they are enjoying the CBC’s Games coverage.
