The Saturday afternoon matchup between the Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets grabbed 1,930,000 viewers (aged 2+) on average, up 36 per cent from the previous record of 1,094,000 (set on Feb. 11, 2011). Citing data from the TV ratings service BBM Canada, CBC said the figure represented a 156 per cent rise from the same weekend last year, when a mid-season game pulled in only 588,000.
Saturday night’s eastern time zone prime-time broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, featuring a matchup between the division rivals Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, pulled in an astonishing 3,317,000 viewers. That was up 16 per cent from the previous record of 2,875,000 for a regular season Saturday night game (set April 7, 2007, when the Leafs knocked off the Canadiens to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot) and a 44 per cent rise from the same weekend in January, 2012. CBC also said that the game had a “reach” of 9.2 million viewers, which means 27 per cent of Canadians watched at least one minute.
Even the CBC’s half-hour pre-game broadcast attracted 2,106,000 viewers.
The “Prime West” game between the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks, which featured a segment of CBC’s popular Coach’s Corner segment, pulled an average viewership of 1,471,000. That was up 48 per cent from last year’s mid-January game, and close to last year’s largest audience for a western prime-time game of 1,482,000. About 6.1 million viewers tuned in for at least one minute of the game.
Last season's season opener on Hockey Night in Canada between Toronto and Montreal on Thursday night was watched by 1.935 million Canadians, which is about the size of the Ottawa-Winnipeg afternoon game. The first Saturday game in the 2011-12 season featured Toronto and Ottawa and was viewed by 2.359 million fans.
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