TSN’s live coverage of yesterday’s Canada vs. Russia gold medal game from the 2003 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship drew the largest audience in the network’s 19-year history with a national average minute audience of 3,446,000 viewers (2+). Audience levels peaked at 4,158,000 viewers during 9 p.m. – 9:30 pm. ET (the final 30 minutes of the game.)
The gold medal game was the most-watched program in Canada for the week (December 30, 2002 – January 5, 2003).
TSN’s coverage of this year’s gold medal game marks a 284 per cent increase from last year’s gold medal game, which attracted 1,214,000 viewers, and a 190 per cent increase from the 1999 World Junior gold medal game in Winnipeg, which attracted 1,816,000 – the third highest rated program in TSN history.
TSN has been scoring record-breaking ratings all throughout this year’s World Junior tournament:
•TSN’s coverage of Team Canada’s six games averaged a record-setting 1,564,000 viewers
•TSN’s coverage of the Canada vs. USA semifinal attracted 2,013,000 (peak at 2,808,000 at 9 p.m. ET), making it the second most-watched program in TSN history
•TSN’s coverage of Team Canada’s four round-robin matches averaged 970,000 viewers, making this year’s round-robin coverage the most watched in TSN World Junior history
•TSN’s coverage of two of Team Canada’s round-robin matches cracked the one million-viewer mark (Canada vs. Finland on December 31 at 1,081,000 and Canada vs. Germany on December 29 at 1,009,000)
The following is a list of the Top 10 highest rated programs of all-time on TSN:
1. 2003 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship gold medal game (Canada vs. Russia) – January 5, 2003 – 3,446,000
2. 2003 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship semifinal (Canada vs. USA) – January 3, 2003 – 2,013,000
3. 1999 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship gold medal game (Canada vs. Russia) – January 5, 1999 – 1,816,000
4. Blue Jays Baseball – September 29, 1989 – 1,806,000
5. Blue Jays Baseball – October 2, 1991 – 1,585,000
6. World Cup Soccer final – July 12, 1998 – 1,549,000
7. 1991 World Junior Hockey Championship gold medal game (Canada vs. Russia) – January 4, 1991 – 1,440,000
8. Blue Jays Baseball – September 27, 1993 – 1,435,000
9. World Cup Soccer final – July 1994 – 1,420,000
10. Blue Jays Baseball – August 23, 1993 – 1,315,000
* based on 2+ audiences
TSN is Canada’s Sports Leader. Setting the Canadian sports broadcasting standard, TSN’s comprehensive schedule includes its flagship news program SPORTSCENTRE, as well as NHL, Toronto Maple Leafs and international hockey, the Olympic Games, Blue Jays baseball, F-1, NASCAR and CART auto racing, CFL, NFL, NBA, PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour, World Cup soccer, Season of Champions curling, figure skating and amateur sports action. Majority owned by CTV Inc., TSN is available in eight million households. TSN’s programming and news content is also available on-line at TSN.ca. CTV Inc. is a division of Bell Globemedia Inc.
Source: Nielsen Media Research