The busiest day on the sports television calendar paid off for TSN and Rogers Sportsnet, which both noted a jump in viewers over last year for their coverage of the National Hockey League’s trade deadline day on Wednesday.

TSN led the pack with an average 182,000 viewers for its Tradecentre ’09 program from 8 am to 6 pm – a 10% increase over last year. Audiences peaked at 296,000 viewers from 2:30 pm to 3 pm as the deadline approached. (All numbers 2+)

While Sportsnet trailed TSN in viewers at 71,000, it saw the biggest growth over last year at 28%. In its prime selling demographic of 25-54, Sportsnet noted at 59% increase versus 2008.

Over on RDS, the French sportscaster averaged 158,000 viewers for its coverage from 1 pm to 5 pm, while another 69,000 watched the show online at rds.ca.

TSN says its website generated 15.8 million page views, surpassing the previous high by 11%. Sportsnet did not release its web numbers.

From Playback Daily