I have five ratings from the past weekend on TSN to share with everyone this evening. First up is UEFA Euro 2012, where the England vs. Italy match, that was decided by penalties, attracted an average audience over 2 million viewers on Sunday afternoon. That makes it the highest rated Euro match in Canada history. It was also the top TV program for the week of June 18-24. The quarterfinals as a whole averaged 1.27 million viewers.
The highest rated quarterfinal at the 2010 World Cup on CBC was 1.95 million for Argentina vs. Germany. In the same event a Sunday round of 16 match between England and Germany brought in an average of 2.27 million viewers. This shows that big games for the European Championships can attract audiences similar to big games at the World Cup. Which is impressive considering it isn’t as big of an international event.
Here are the ratings for all four Euro 2012 quarterfinals.
Portugal vs. Czech Republic – 652, 000
Germany vs. Greece – 917, 000
Spain vs. France – 1.13 million
England vs. Italy – 2.058 million
Meanwhile on Friday an average of 1.37 million viewers tuned in to the NHL Draft on TSN. Needless to say I am never amazed at how many Canadians will watch something hockey related, even on a summer evening. Even with three Canadian teams picking in the top 5, the average audience shows that many had nothing better to do stuck around for hours.
A Rouge Point 
Those numbers are fantastic. It’s great to see the sport getting that kind of support here in Canada. For the england-italy match to be the highest rated program in Canada last week is awsome.
For sure. Obviously many shows are in reruns now, but hockey, the Grey Cup, the Super Bowl and maybe a World Junior game are the only other sports events I can think of that topped the weekly charts.
Argentina/Germany was on Saturday morning in the east and early morning out west which puts it at a disadvantage vs the 245 pm EDT Sunday afternoon slot for Italy/England. Plus, English matches tend to get the highest ratings in Canada. And if you were going to get the 2nd most popular or hated team, it would have to be Italy.
Stating Euro isn’t a big international event is way off base. After WC, Summer Olympics and maybe UEFA Champions League, it is the biggest sporting event based on world tv numbers.
There was a 2:45 ET game that weekend too. It wasn’t the highest rated quarterfinal though. So, yes it was at a disadvantage, but the comparable game had worse ratings.
Yeah, but it isn’t the Olympics or World Cup. Those are the top two without question. As far as ratings go, the Euro, Rugby World Cup, Champions League and Super Bowl are fairly close as far as I know. Cricket World Cup may be as well, I’m not sure.
Champions League Final took over from the Super Bowl a couple of years ago and is now estimated to be about double of the Super Bowl. They’re doing a better job leveraging their inherent global reach and moving it to Saturday from Wednesday has boosted the numbers.
Cricket WC would have be part of the top 5 especially when a country from South Asia is in the final.
Each of the Euro matches so far have had ratings on par with the Super Bowl and the final is expected to have 250 million. Euro 08 final was watched by on average by 237 million – avg being defined as watching 30 mins and excludes people watching away from home which is 1 out of 5.
http://sports.sympatico.ca/news/uefa_expects_250m_tv_audience_for_euro_2012_final/76388579