A great end to a great TV year for the CFL

Sunday was a pretty good day for the Canadian Football League, even if its public image took a hit with the revelation that some its teams can't count to 13. Not only did the Grey Cup game score the highest ratings of anything on Canadian television this year -- 5 million plus on TSN and another million on French-language RDS -- but some of the programming surrounding the game hit lofty heights, too.

An average of 2.2 million people watched the half-hour pre-game show, a number that ranks with ratings king Hockey Night In Canada. Even more amazing, an average of 374,000 souls watched the five-hour pre-pre-game show Sunday afternoon. Taped coverage of the CFL awards pulled in more than 200,000 viewers.

It was a good weekend all-around for Canadian football, with the Vanier Cup attracting 399,000 viewers on TSN despite some awful technical glitches and generally spotty coverage.

The weekend capped an amazing year for the CFL, which appears to be the sport that has benefitted most from the new ratings system. While all sports ratings are up with the new personal people meters, the CFL's are way up.

As for the reasons, that's pretty much a guess. It could be that the old system missed a lot of CFL fans, many of whom apparently were hiding their interest in Canadian football as if it were a crack addiction. But, assuming the ratings system is accurate -- and that always requires a leap of faith -- CFL numbers have been consistently at or near the top all season.

And that means TSN and the league will have some pretty strong ammunition when they talk to sponsors about the 2010 season. It also must have them dreaming of what could be if the Toronto Argonauts could get their act together again.

Here are the top-rated English-languge sports broadcasts of the past weekend, according to BBM Canada overnight ratings.

1. CFL, Grey Cup, Alouettes vs. Roughriders, Sunday, TSN: 5,087,000

2. CFL, Grey Cup Countdown to Kickoff, Sunday, TSN: 2,200,000

3. NHL, Caps-Habs/Bruins-Sens/Flames-Avs, Saturday, CBC: 1,783,000

4.  NHL, Canucks at Oilers, Saturday, CBC: 1,202,000

5. NFL, Patriots at Saints, Monday, TSN: 1,002,000

6, NFL, Early games, Sunday, CTV: 735,000

7. NFL, Late games, Sunday, Citytv: 472,000

8. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 644,000

9. Figure skating, Skate Canada gala, Saturday, CBC: 425,000

10. CIS, Vanier Cup, Queens vs. Calgary, Saturday, TSN: 399,000

11. CFL, Grey Cup pre-game, Sunday, TSN: 374,000

12. NBA, Suns at Raptors, Sunday, CBC: 334,000

13. NBA, Raptors at Celtics, Friday, TSN: 223,000

14. CFL, Players Awards, Saturday, TSN: 212,000

15. NFL, Steelers at Ravens, Sunday, TSN2: 205,000*

16. Skiing, Aspen women's GS, Saturday, CBC: 199,000

* NBC viewers not calculated

Comments

[Argie]

Over 5 million people watching high school caliber football. Wow!

[vampire squid]

It's not always about being the highest quality calibre in sports or products. If that was the case, there would be no need for the various pro hockey leagues around the world or the hundreds of soccer leagues.

CFL has also its unique brand that's based on its Canadian roots, local community relationships, unique rules, and different & usually exciting style of play.

And if you're a real football fan, high school football is worthy - we just 5k show up for New Brunswick & Manitoba's high school championships. And of course, Americans follow high school football like a religion.

[SteveB]

So apparently HNIC's early game ratings were down 250,000 from their typical level, with the Leafs idle. Now we know why the Leafs are the featured game every Saturday.

[Bob]

If the raptors have been in canada for 97 years they would have 1 million people watching to

[willy]

bob
If the raptors have been in canada for 97 years they would have 1 million people watching to

the "raptors" wold have been in canada for dam near 97 years. if huskies hadn't folded in the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America due to lack of interest. going by the ratings there still isn't much interest in the t dot for basketball

[CC]

5 million people watched the game on a second tier cable channel, 6 million people overall, and what was our national broadcaster airing that day? It was airing a Toronto Raptors basketball game to 300,000 people, mostly Torontonians. The CBC isn’t even trying to be a national broadcaster anymore. It’s clearly little more than regional Toronto station now.

I can’t figure out why CTV didn’t show the game on its main channel, however. They must have left a tonne of money on the table by not doing that. There are all kinds of people who aren’t big sports fans, and who therefore don’t get TSN, but who religiously watch the Grey Cup game. I wonder what the numbers would have been if they would have played the game on the main CTV network? 7 million? 8 million?

[Rick Grace]

CBC let go of the CFL to carry Raptors basketball, TFC soccer, and Blue Jays baseball. I'm sure they're happy about that move, eh?

[argosrule]

There is interest in the Raptors within the GTA. There is virtually no interest in them outside of the Toronto area though.

[Boristerzic.blogspot.com]

Yes, I guess 6million watched high school football. In fact some 14 million people tuned in at it's peak to see it. And some 400,000 tuned in to watch Vanier Cup or what I guess you'd classify as Peewee Football.

If you're not a fan that is fine, but don't hate on something that over 40% of the nation at it's peak tuned into... Shows your ignorance and small mindedness.

[Daniel]

True, argosrule. The Raptor fanbase is actually surprisingly intense and supportive (top ten attendance for the last few years). But yeah, all the fans seem to be in the GTA. Nothing wrong with that though - Toronto is a very big city.

Glad to see the CFL doing well. I agree, I'm surprised the game wasn't on CTV.

Rick - you should take Blue Jays baseball out of your wisecrack. They get good TV numbers, and great radio numbers - pretty impressive considering a decade and a half of mediocrity. Imagine if they were good!

[Mike]

CC, CTV didn't leave any money on the the table by putting the game on TSN. TSN is in 10million homes, it's not a second-tier cable channel, so I doubt it would get much more viewers if its on CTV. Also, if they did air the game on CTV, they would have to pre-empt the regular schedule and lose those viewers (Amazing Race got 2.5 million viewers)

And your complaining about the Raptors being on. Well tell me, what other NBA team would you rather CBC show? Honestly, it's not like Toronto teams are getting shown while other Canadian teams are ignored.

[CC]

Mike, as an over the air station CTV is in essentially every home with a television. If TSN is in 10 million homes and 14 million people watched at least part of game on Sunday, then that suggests that almost everyone who had access to it watched at least part of the game. Imagine what the numbers would have been if almost everyone in the country had access to the game? TSN is a cable channel and I don’t know of anywhere where it’s part of the basic cable package. Everywhere I know of it’s a second tier option. If your number is correct then it’s only available in 10 million homes in Canada.

WRT pre-empting other shows, I don’t understand your argument. The point is that the Grey Cup would have drawn a much larger audience on CTV than anything else they showed that day. A show like Amazing Race could even have been bumped to another timeslot and displaced another lower rated show. WRT the NBA, why is the CBC even showing NBA games? The only Canadian city with an NBA team is Toronto. The NBA is not a sport that has a significant national audience. As RG said above, instead of buying the rights to a Canadian sport with a huge national audience, the CFL, the CBC instead dropped the CFL and bought the rights to a number of regional Toronto sports, the Raptors, TFC and the Blue Jays. The CBC is no longer acting like a national network. It's acting like a regional Toronto station.

[Mark from Calgary]

I live in Calgary and I know absolutely no one that follows the Raptors. It's like they don't even exist. I get Raptors TV as well (I'm forced to take thanks to Shaw Cable) and consider it a waste of good bandwidth.

[David Hyndman]

Oh for crying out load people stop trying to rewrite history to re-enforce your preconceived biases. The CBC did not drop the CFL. The CFL dropped the CBC. The CBC was already to negotiate and Tom Wright - right out of the blue - signed an exclusive deal with TSN. CBC didn't even have a chance to put an offer on the table.

[Bob]

Basketball Is The Fastest Growing Sport In Canada, And The Cfl Has Been In Canada For 97 Years And The Raptors Have Been In Canada For 15 Years If It Was The Other Way Around We Would Be Talking About How No One Watch's The CFL. Maybe That's Way CBC Is Showing Raptors Because In 10 Year Basketball Is Supports To Be Competing With The NHL In TV Ratings.

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