The Grey Cup continues to be one of Canada’s biggest television events, with 10 million unique viewers, or nearly 30% of Canadians, tuning in to TSN and RDS for Sunday night’s overtime thriller at the 104th Grey Cup presented by Shaw, according to preliminary overnight data from Numeris. Overall, the total reach grew 3% compared to last year.
An average audience of 3.9 million viewers tuned in to TSN (3.6 million) and RDS (254,000) as the Ottawa REDBLACKS’ secured a dramatic 39-33 OT win over the Calgary Stampeders in what was one of the greatest CFL championship games in league history.
The average audience for the 104th Grey Cup presented by Shaw peaked at 5.7 million viewers late in the fourth quarter as a Calgary field goal forced the game into overtime, which saw Ottawa’s Ernest Jackson secure an 18-yard strike from Grey Cup MVP Henry Burris for the game’s decisive score.
Nationwide, the average audience for the game grew 15% among male viewers aged 18-34, and grew 4% among male viewers aged 18-49.
TSN’s exclusive live coverage of the 104th GREY CUP presented by Shaw also made TSN the most-watched channel in Canada on Sunday, ahead of all conventional network overnight audiences by 151%.
Additional ratings highlights:
• Live streaming audiences on TSN Digital platforms marked an increase of 35% compared to last year’s Grey Cup
• The neon-lit halftime performance by multi-platinum rockers OneRepublic during the Freedom Mobile Grey Cup Halftime Show attracted an average audience of 3.5 million viewers
• An average audience of 1.9 million viewers stayed to watch TSN’s extensive post-game coverage
• TSN’s 360-video pre-game content – a GREY CUP production first – attracted more than 18,000 total views
• TSN’s official Snapchat story featuring behind-the-scenes content from the 104th Grey Cup presented by Shaw attracted 219,000 views
The 104th Grey Cup presented by Shaw caps off a successful CFL on TSN season that saw the average audience for regular season games grow 3% overall, and 7% in the key 18-49 demographic nationwide. As well, the CFL’s Western and Eastern Semi-Finals marked an increase of 14% compared to last year, attracting 1.1 million and 903,000 viewers to TSN, respectively.
The 104th Grey Cup also saw some major gains globally. On Grey Cup Sunday, there were a total of 155,000 Tweets – a 52% increase compared to 2015 and a 74% increase compared to 2014. There were also a total of 224,000 Grey Cup related Tweets during all of Grey Cup Week which included 131,000 Tweets using the #GreyCup emoji hashtag.