It was a highly anticipated match that had a highly unanticipated finish, and over two million Canadians tuned in to watch England vs. USA as the World Cup kicked off this weekend.
The average audience for the England/USA game was 2.275 million, peaking at over three million viewers. Factoring in PPM, it was the highest average audience for a preliminary round World Cup broadcast in Canadian history, a CBC release said. Five of the first eight live matches garnered over one million viewers for the broadcaster.
Online, the first three days of coverage have seen over 750,000 live-game streams on the CBC World Cup microsite.
Online and on TV, here are the numbers:
Friday, June 11
Opening Ceremony – 382,000
South Africa vs. Mexico – 906,000 average audience / 269,127 total live streams (includes Opening Ceremony)
Uruguay vs. France – 1.010 million average audience / 155,087 total live streams
Match of the Day (South Africa vs. Mexico encore) – 535,000 average audience
Saturday, June 12
Korea Republic vs. Greece – 605,000 average audience / 40,790 total live streams
Argentina vs. Nigeria – 1.305 million average audience / 62,072 total live streams
England vs. USA – 2.275 million average audience / 86,711 total live streams
Match of the Day (England vs. USA encore) – 465,000 average audience
Sunday, June 13
Algeria vs. Slovenia – 513,000 average audience / 24,734 total live streams
Serbia vs. Ghana – 1.212 million average audience / 43,376 total live streams
Germany vs. Australia – 1.660 million average audience / 78,168 total live streams
Match of the Day (Germany vs. Australia encore) – 509,000 average audience
Source: Television audiences are BBM overnight, A2+ (PPM measurement). Streaming numbers: CBC Research – Omniture HBX (2009) and Omniture Site Catalyst (2010).
