London 2012: Canada's CTV Posts Most-Watched Summer Olympic Games Broadcast

MONTREAL – A domestic broadcast group led by the top-rated CTV network secured a record Canadian summer Olympic Games audience on Friday night.

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The Olympic Broadcast Broadcast Media Consortium grabbed an average audience of 6.4 million Canadian TV viewers for the live broadcast of the opening ceremony from London, ahead of the delayed coverage on NBC stateside.

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The audience for the opener of the London 2012 Olympic Games was exceeded only by the opening for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which earned an average audience of 13.5 million Canadians owing to home-field advantage.

Still, 16.6 million viewers, or half of all Canadians, tuned into at least some of the London Games opening ceremony.

The previous Summer Olympics record holder was the opening ceremony for the 1996 Atlanta Games.

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A wide time zone difference had only 1.8 million Canadians on average tuning into the Beijing Games opening ceremony in 2008.