World Cup runneth over for CBC

There was a time, not all that long ago, when soccer was dismissed as a minor sport among Canadian couch potatoes, a diversion for immigrants and Euro-wannabes. If the 2010 World Cup has proved anything, other than solidifying the world ``vuvuzela" as an obscenity in some households, it's that soccer can no longer be denied a spot at the top of the Canadian sports interest charts.

(By the way, those defending the incessant vuvuzela horns as some African cultural thing have me wondering what other ``cultural" surprises may be in store for us: Poking people in the eye with sharp sticks?)

The new Canadian ratings system makes you wonder how big some of these events really are and claims that the 2010 World Cup ratings so far are triple the last one can't really be taken as gospel. But comparing these games to other big ratings calculated under the new system is a valid way to look at the picture.

Saturday's England-U.S. match drew an average of 2.275 million viewers to CBC. That compares with the good old Canadian standard, the Stanley Cup final, which drew 4 million viewers to CBC. Both were also broadcast on U.S. channels, so it's a pretty fair comparison.

Add in the fact that soccer was played on a Saturday afternoon, considered a ratings dead zone, and there's a pretty good case to be made that the game everybody else calls football is no longer a fringe sport. Oh yes, and this was a preliminary game.

It will be interesting to see how the final game does.

If you want to add in live streams, which averaged 250,000 a day through Sunday, you might make a case that the World Cup is as popular than the Stanley Cup.

That might be heresy, but the numbers are pretty impressive.

 Here are the top English-Canadian weekend sports ratings, according to BBM Canada overnight calculations:

1. World Cup, England vs. U.S., Sunday, CBC: 2,275,000*

2. World Cup, Germany vs. Australia, Sunday, CBC: 1,660,000

3. World Cup, Argentina vs. Nigeria, Saturday, CBC: 1,305,000

4. World Cup, Serbia vs. Ghana, Sunday, CBC: 1,212,000

5. World Cup, Italy vs. Paraguay, Monday, CBC: 1,136,000

6. World Cup: Uruguay vs. France, Friday, CBC: 1,010,000

7. World Cup: South Africa vs. Mexico, Friday, CBC: 906,000

8. World Cup: Japan vs. Cameroon, Monday, CBC: 637,000

9. World Cup: Korea vs. Greece, Saturday, CBC: 605,000

10. Auto racing: F1 Canadian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 578,000

11. NBA: Lakers at Celtics, Sunday, TSN: 544,000*

12. World Cup: Algeria vs. Slovenia, Sunday, CBC: 513,000

13. World Cup: Netherlands vs. Denmark, Monday, CBC: 488,000

14. MLB: Blue Jays at Rockies, Saturday, Sportsnet: 482,000

15. Auto racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup, Sunday, TSN: 414,000

* Viewers on U.S. channels not included.

Comments

[john]

If you include the ratings for the repeat showings of some of these matches and the live streams, these are even more boffo ratings for a sport that many tend to pooh-pooh in Canada as a spectator sport.

The new ratings system also more truly captures the interest in events such as the WC because these are family & group viewing events.

[VWater]

Thank you for the work you do. Considering most of them are in the morning and afternoons that is crazy. A game featuring Ghana and Serbia gets a million people. The amazing thing is that the more high-profile superstars/teams like Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Spain didn't play this weekend. What would be their numbers if they played on the weekend?

A big difference I see from previous world cups and this world cup is that I noticed the general sports fan is much more into than I've ever seen it. Before you had a distinct groups who are into it, but not really connect with a general sports fan. But this year I see so many more people who aren't hardcore soccer fans being into it, getting involved in pools, or just wanting to talk about it. I think in part of a reason the ratings are so much higher this year is that TFC brought soccer to the general sports audience, now of course TFC aren't getting a million people watching their games, but it has showed soccer to the masses (not just people brought up on it) and the sports can be viewed by the general sports fan with more understanding and not be scared away by how some of the media want to portray it as "That Euro sport"

It was really easy to make fun of soccer when it was considered a "fringe" sport but when averaging a million viewers & out view any sport currently & some still act like it a fringe sport. Those media personality are viewed as either out of touch or just not doing their job. The Game Plan with Smith & Armstrong was embarrassing today, spewing every ignorant cliche from low scoring equals boring (this isn't basketball guys, scoring means something) to soccer fans are hooligans (I guess every hockey fan tips over cars or basketball fan burns down the city) The most idiotic comment of the day came from Smith saying "I'm not being ignorant, soccer need more scoring to be popular". Somebody should tell him TFC outdraws the Raps & ratings are pretty even & there's no basketball game that will come close to these ratings

On the positive, I think Mike Hogan has stepped up & done a good job, he admits he isn't a soccer expert but you can tell he is trying & giving the respect & effort it deserves. Also glad to hear Farraway hosting a show. These other hosts don't have to be experts or even put soccer as there favorite sport. But they better start understanding it because not sure how long they can treat it as "The euro sport" . PS I read your great article on World Cup going digital & the alternative camera views not being on TV, not sure if you have Rogers but if you do you can get isolation camera views (on players and overhead) during live games. Overhead views is kind of interesting, but the player focus camera isn't too useful except during halftime when that camera is scanning the crowd who not knowing they are on TV lol

[Josh]

You can't really compare the World Cup to the Stanley Cup Finals IMO. You could compare the Champions League to the Stanley Cup, but the World Cup is more like the Olympic Hockey Tournament, involves all of the top national teams and only happens once every four years. So yes the ratings are good, very good in fact, but I wouldn't consider soccer as a "top sport" in Canada until the Premier League and MLS can start getting better ratings, even though MLS is boring and doesn't deserve better ratings. Having the top Premier League games on TSN2 and Sportsnet, instead of The Score and Setanta, should help that.

Also, I'm not sure how well the World Cup will do if England or Brazil aren't involved. Those are the two big teams, so while Italy or Portugal or Spain or France (er scratch that, France won't make the final) would be a good final, it just wouldn't bring the same buzz.

[Brett S]

Impressive, but where have all those "soccer fans" in Canada been since this blog started? And where will they be once the tournament ends? Soccer is still NOT a major sport in this country, it is a once-every-four-years event that is the World Cup. The same thing happens here for the fringe sports at the Summer and Winter Olympics that take a stranglehold on this country for 2 weeks every four years. Where are all the moguls and track and field fans after the Olympics? The same place the soccer fans are after and before the World Cup. People are watching because it's the World Cup, not because they are interested in the game being played.

[Jimmy D]

Soccer is still not a major sport in Canada, but what it is, is a growing sport. The average sports fan here is more knowledgable about the game and learning the nuances of the sport. Hopefully with the addition of two more Canadian teams to MLS we will see continued growth, not only of fans, but of players. I would love to see Canada compete in the World Cup Finals. I can honestly see that happening in the next decade. The Americans have developed a good solid team, in a relatively short period of time.
I must admit also, that CBC sports have done a great job of covering the matches. Cudos to them.

[Rick Grace]

Compare the World Cup to Olympic hockey.
Because they're both every 4 years.
There is no comparison.
One Canada hockey game did what, almost 10 million on average?
The top 15 programs last weekend barely equalled that combined.
And really.
Wouldn't it be embarassing if soccer was our top sport?
And we weren't even able to beat a country like Haiti?
Oh my.

[Studmuffin69]

world cup soccer

It's all here--fast-kicking, low scoring, and ties? You bet!

[Jimmy D]

Hey Studmuffin,if you have a problem with it, well dont watch it. Bottom line is, the game is growing over here. Young people are watching it in numbers. TFC have great support, not all ethnic, in case that troubles you.
And guess what, Spain lost 1 nil to Switzerland this afternoon. And plenty of us around the world found it tremendously exciting.
To be honest, if you are a sportsfan, I feel sorry that the greatest, largest sporting event in the WORLD cannot interest you. Ah well, your loss not ours.

[Mike]

Comparisons to Olympic hockey aren't completely fair either. In the Olympics, everyone is watching Canada. In the World Cup, the audience is splintered by ethnicity. Italians will all watch the Italy game but might won't all watch every other game. The English will watch England's games but might skip France's. Same for the Chinese, Germans, Brazilians, Portuguese, Koreans etc. You never get the whole audience during 1 game like you did in Vancouver.

[cookie]

studmuffin is a troll because he's been posting the same thing on other media sites

[Studmuffin69]

Jimmy D
1. i don't watch it. 2.Young people are watching it in numbers --- a tfc game recently attracted 8000 viewers yes 8000 thousand is a number but i would not say it is evidence of great support. 3.not all ethnic, in case that troubles you.---- i don't like what you like so i must be a racist? 4.the greatest, largest sporting event in the WORLD cannot interest you. Ah well, your loss not ours-----big macs are the most popular hamburger in world perhaps you think they are the best hamburger in the WORLD. and i suppose anyone who doesent like them is a racist or bigot

[Josh]

Rick I don't think you quite understood what I was saying, as you usually don't. My point was that hockey averages 1-2 million for a regular season game, but 5-10 times that for the Olympics. Same as soccer, which gets around a few hundred thousand for Premier League and MLS matches, but over a million for the World Cup.

My point was that Olympic Hockey, Olympic Basketball and the Football World Cup can't be compared to the regular season or playoffs of their respective sports because they are simply bigger. All you did was prove my point.

[SF]

I think pro soccer could do very well in Canada. With just one team there was never going to be any national interest, but with Vancouver and Montreal coming in I think the potential for a significant national fan base is now there. I think a lot of hockey fans could cross over and become soccer fans, and in particular I think a lot of fans of the way the NHL game used to be played 15 or 20 years ago will like today’s pro soccer, but I also think a lot will depend on how the play by play and colour commentating is done. They’ll need to stay away from the British style of cry-baby complaining, and the American style of ridiculously overhyping everything, but if they stick to the intelligent, neutral-positive, Canadian style and I think they could draw large audiences. They’ll also need a telestrator and a Howie Meeker type analyst to help bring people up to speed on the strategy at the pro level.

[Studmuffin69]

cookie

It's all here--fast-kicking, low scoring, and ties? You bet!
i guess you think i am the only person who has ever seen the simpsons. or do you think i am the only one who has come up with the novel idea of quoting the show in a comment section

[Dave]

It make's me laugh. TFC, get's 25,000 people watching on TV,and thats on a good day Darts beat TFC every week. Please when the world cup is over, then North American will go back to ignoring the sport. How can you take any tournament seriously when North Korea is in it. What would happen if North Korea won? Reporters would not even be allowed in to the country. What a joke

[Prince20]

Next time in Brazil 2014 look for even better numbers. Prime time with sambagirls and no vuvuzelas.

[Jimmy D]

Stud Muffin states that TFC had 8000 for one game. That was a meaningless game against Vancouver on a really miserable night when TFC only played their subs. I have season tix and generally BMO field is sold out. I have been in Canada for thirty years and the interest in the game is far greater now at the grass roots level. MLS is slowly but surely becoming a viable league, it has a way to go, but they are going about it the right way.
The comparison to McDonalds is absolutely ludicrous.
But may I ask you this, why do you think the rest of the world loves the game so much? And what is it about soccer and its fans that gets you so upset. I have embraced hockey and basketball since coming here. I am not a huge fan of baseball but I can understand why some people enjoy the game, and wouldnt put it down and hope for its failure if it tried to expand to Europe or Africa.
Dave, what a stupid comment about the North Koreans. It is the World Cup and they are part of the World. Your comments infer that we should not take the World Cup seriously?

[Jimmy D]

Dave, where did you get your information about the tv ratings? I think you were just shooting from the lip. Here are the facts......Columbus at Toronto on May 2nd had a viewership of 261,000 on CBC, to me that is extremely encouraging considering Canada only has one MLS team and are yet to be successful. That number by the way, was much higher than a few NBA playoff games, a Saturday Nascar event, a Memorial Cup game, and a few Jays games recently.
Like studmuffin, you are entitled to hate the game, but please dont be upset about its growth. There is enough room here for hockey and the other sports plus soccer. And I can see Canada eventually becoming a reasonable soccer country. Would you enjoy the game anymore if fellow Canadians were participating? The comment about not taking the World Cup seriously because North Korea is participating, is pretty disgusting. It is the WORLD cup after all. I find it refreshing that no matter how poor a country may be, its athletes can participate in this great event.
I would love to see hockey grow in Europe and the States and I encourage all my friends and family back home to watch it.

[Dave]

Jimmy, read below, The TFC ratings came right from this Blog, and how about North korea paying fans from other countrys to cheer for their team, becasu as you know, no one fom North kora is allowed to leave the country. Please give me a break, the most closed backwards country in the histroy of mankind, in a Football world cup, raked 150 in the world and they played on of the worlds best team to a 2 to 1 games. h a Jimmy don't worry it's not like they have ever fixed a soccer game berfore. Nigeria is allready on the take

And how about the CFL draft. In only its second year on TV, it doubled its audience to 119,000 on TSN Sunday afternoon. Imagine what it could do if the show went beyond talking heads and commissioner Mark Cohon's smiling announcements.

A few more cameras in a few more war rooms and a few more players would be welcome.

As for Toronto FC, who can explain the fact its game against Real Salt Lake on Sunday evening drew a paltry 25,000 viewers. Yes, the game was on only two Sportsnet channels (Ontario and Pacific) and it was up against hockey, but Slap Chop infomercials draw better than that.

[Mike]

I hate it when people cherry pick the very worst data in order to prove their point.

[VWater]

You are so right on the money Mike, I am not sure if this happens to all sports, but I especially see it happen when people want to be "Anti soccer". It turns almost into those lame political discussions that a person feels the need to take this extreme position against something and if you look at it as a central view, that person comes off as throwing skewed numbers or coming off like a hypocrite.

The most vocal anti-soccer people here are doing both. Like taking the lowest rated game of the year & acting like that's an average or "a good day" when in reality that was their lowest MLS rating of the year (that's why Zelk mentioned it), the week previous TFC got a 188,000 rating with a game vs Seattle. As for the hypocrite side, talking about poorly ranked nation like North Korea played a close game with Brazil, because we never see that in hockey, Switzerland never played a very close game vs. our team with home rink advantage at this years Olympics or defeated our highly ranked team in the previous Olympics(oh yeah they did) and in hockey history we never played against a Communist nation of players(Summit Series). What's next, hockey fans complaining about ties like we never saw it on our games for decades.

CBC has averaged about 170,000 a game this season (lots of those games went head to head against NBC/TSN NHL playoffs due to Bettman's genius idea of afternoon playoff hockey in the middle of spring) their last game before the World Cup break got 193,000. Sportsnet has less. I think that's due to CBC schedule is more consistent (Saturday afternoon) and better advertised and always national, while Sportsnet most of the time is on half their stations, lost in the shuffle and most of their games are away games out west.But I will say right now, TFC is a very regional supported team, but hopefully that changes soon with more teams from this nation added, more national players playing and higher awareness of national players playing in the league from other parts of the nation.

I don't think anybody is saying it's going to take over the NHL or even baseball province wide or match these World Cup ratings. But with a couple of teams coming in the next couple of seasons, what I've noticed a more general acceptance/understanding from general sports fan towards soccer. Hopefully sports radio talk would talk about the team in a semi-regularly (like they are in for the world cup) all of those reasons look like a possibility of have a good chance of an upward trend in popularity/attention. If the electronic media (radio/TV) hosts actually pay attention to TFC like they do the other sports (some even have similar ratings) I think the sport interest would be even greater & might start getting close to "baseball ratings". Will the establish media allow it, I think it'll be tough, there's a lot of interest in the status quo