Audiences are returning to CBC Television, particularly for national news programming, football and hockey this fall. The network has achieved a prime time share of seven per cent for the week of Oct. 10, 2005*very close to the same period last year.
Game One (7 p.m. ET) of Hockey Night in Canada’s back-to-back hockey match-ups has averaged 1.65 million viewers this season, while Game Two (10 p.m. ET) has averaged 1.22 million. Compared to the first three games of the 2003/04 season, the 7 p.m. game is up 43 per cent, while the 10 p.m. game is up 82 per cent.
CFL on CBC’s numbers have remained steady through the season. The Thanksgiving weekend double-header (Oct. 10), for instance, saw Edmonton @ Toronto attracting 673,000 viewers and BC @ Winnipeg garnering 909,000 viewers. The season average to date is 481,000, up from an average 437,000 last season.
CBC News has made a strong showing over the last several weeks, with audiences comparable to viewing averages from last year. From Oct. 11 to Oct. 23, the average viewership for The National was 652,000. Last season, the average was 673,000.
Additionally, CBC Television’s prime-time comedies Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Just For Laughs are also doing well. On Oct. 28, Air Farce attracted 742,000 viewers; This Hour’s viewership was 699,000; and Just For Laughs was watched by 772,000 Canadians.
CBC Television’s summer share average was 6.1 per cent prior to the lockout of Canadian Media Guild staff and the introduction of contingency programming. CBC-TV’s prime time share dropped to 5.3 per cent during lockout*but has since rebounded to a share of 7 per cent (week of Oct. 10, 2005). The share at this point last year was 7.3 per cent.