Despite an impressive number for the opening of new Mosaic Stadium, the early television ratings for the CFL continue to underperform compared to last season.
An average of 502,000 viewers watched the four games on TSN last week, with a high of 726,000 tuning in to watch Winnipeg’s thrilling overtime victory in Regina on Canada Day. The league added in the RDS numbers and initially trumpeted it as the “most-watched sporting event on Canada Day”
.@CFLonTSN & @RDSca average 769,000 viewers for @sskroughriders vs @Wpg_BlueBombers game, marking most-watched sporting event on Canada Day. pic.twitter.com/e6qKdkUncx
— CFL Communications (@CFL_PR) July 4, 2017
That claim, however, proved to be inaccurate and Sportsnet’s Arash Madani went all Donald Trump on them.
Fake News.
The Blue Jays game on July 1 drew a television audience of 822,000. Not sure how 769,000 surpasses that. https://t.co/7psE6PKcDv
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) July 4, 2017
And the CFL was compelled to correct itself.
Apologies, Canada. In error, we didn’t include an additional Sportsnet360 number to total average. Congrats @BlueJays on a great #Canada150!
— CFL Communications (@CFL_PR) July 4, 2017
This isn’t the first time Madani has questioned the league’s TV accounting and the debate surrounding viewership and reach – which are both used by broadcasters and leagues to measure audience – has flared from time-to-time on Twitter.
Overall, ratings on TSN are down 13.3 per cent from 2016’s average of 592,000 viewers. And while viewership is likely expected to increase after Labour Day, when the games are more meaningful and people have returned from vacation, the 364,000 who tuned into the B.C. Lions game in Toronto is a concern given the importance of both those markets to the CFL’s overall health.
Week 2 English language CFL ratings
Thursday
Ottawa at Calgary: 432,000
Friday
B.C. at Toronto: 364,000
Montreal at Edmonton: 486,000
Saturday
Winnipeg at Saskatchewan.: 726,000
