New Year's Eve: Global in Niagara beats City in Toronto

New Year's Eve in Niagara Falls was broadcasted on Global, while City, formerly known as Citytv, aired their outdoor events in Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton. The number of Canadians who watched one of these events indoors on a television are shown below in network press releases. First, Global in Niagara:

TORONTO, January 2, 2013 – Playing host to Canada’s top New Year’s Eve bash, ET Canada kicked off 2013 with a bang! Broadcast live from one of North America’s natural wonders, the fourth annual ‘New Year’s Eve at Niagara Falls’ garnered 846,000 (2+, National) viewers on Monday night with a total reach of 6.0 million (2+, National).

Hosted by Cheryl Hickey and Matte Babel, with the help of Rosey Edeh, the two-hour coast-to-coast countdown was up 12% (2+, National) for Global Television from last year with viewership peaking at 12am with 2.0 million viewers.

Now, City in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton:

TORONTO (January 2, 2013) Broadcasting live in front of more than 100,000 Canadians from three party centrals across the country in Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton – the City New Year’s Bash 2013 attracted a record-breaking 5.9 million unique viewers, tuning into some or all of the four-hour broadcast. 1.7 million Canadians tuned-in at midnight ET to see City personalities welcome in the New Year with the ultimate countdown spectacle featuring fireworks and an exclusive performance of “Auld Lang Syne” by multiplatinum-selling group, The Tenors.  

Kicking off the festivities live from Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square starting at 10 p.m. ET, the City New Year’s Bash 2013 rang-in the New Year in Toronto rocking an average audience of 546,700 viewers (P2+) and drawing 4.5 million unique viewers tuning in to some or all of the broadcast. In Canada’s largest city, the City New Year’s Bash 2013 outperformed Global’s New Year’s Eve at Niagara Falls by 70% among 2+ viewers, and 101% and 145% among key demos among A25-54 and A18-49, respectively.

Immediately following the Toronto event at midnight ET, the party continued live from Olympic Plaza in Calgary and Churchill Square in Edmonton as the City New Year’s Bash heralded in 2013 in the west, drawing an average of 406,900 viewers (P2+) and a total reach of 2.8 million viewers.

Global in Niagara beats City in total viewers, average number of viewers, and viewers at midnight. While the City New Year's Bash appealed to a wider audience this year, from 5.1 million last year to 5.9 million this year (a 15.7% increase), the other new year's eve figures on City have dropped since last year. In 2012, the Toronto event attracted a much larger average TV audience of 652,100 (16.2% decrease in 2013) and 422,000 (3.6% decrease in 2013 including Edmonton event) watched the Calgary event, on average.

Market index shows Calgary, Edmonton being the most competitive radio markets

Earlier this week, we looked at the share in hours of each media company in the largest markets in Canada. Using those same share totals, we can figure out how concentrated or competitive the Canadian radio markets are.

In each city or market, the shares of all media companies, not the stations themselves, like Astral, Bell, CBC, Corus, and Rogers are added. One would expect the result to be 100%. However, this isn't the case since community/campus radio stations don't participate in the studies and neither do ones from other markets that happen to be picked up. (As a reminder, the share is calculated by taking the the number of hours tuned to a particular station, or in this case the media company, and dividing it by the total number of hours listened to the radio.) So, the problem with using the share values from the BBM data is that we also have to include the other radio stations that help sum all the shares to 100% and we don't have that information.

Radio Owners' Share in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal (Fall 2012)

With BBM topline data, we can do more than just calculate the changes in listeners or market share of each radio station over a year. One thing we can do with the data is to compare how each media company fares in the large markets. So, let's take a look at these large markets of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal.

In the Toronto market, Rogers is in the lead with a share of 28% thanks to the popularity of CHFI and 680News. The Fan 590 is Rogers' lowest rating station, but its share is 3.4%.

The under-performing TSN Radio (0.4) and the low listenership of Urban music station FLOW 93.5 are keeping Bell Media far away from Rogers and Astral in the ratings game.

Toronto radio ratings Aug 27 - Nov 25

BBM Canada has released its Toronto radio data for August 27 – November 25, 2012. Below is the market share of the total number of hours listened for each radio station, expressed in percentage (%):

“Sept-Nov 2012”, the most recent quarter, refers to August 27 – November 25, 2012. “June-Aug 2012” refers to May 28- August 26, 2012 and “Sept-Nov 11” represents the August 29 - November 27, 2011 period. The “1-Yr Diff” calculates the change in market share between this current period and the same period from a year ago.

Grey Cup Most Watched on English language TV

From TSN's press release:

Preliminary overnight data from BBM Canada confirms that the 100th GREY CUP delivered an average audience of 5.5 million viewers on TSN, making it the most-watched CFL championship game ever recorded on English-language television.*

Meanwhile, an average audience of 5.8 million watched the 100th GREY CUP on TSN and RDS, marking a 28% increase in viewers compared to last year and earning an incredible national 16.1 rating. Audiences jumped even higher for younger viewers, with a 38% increase among A18-34.

Numbers on the 99th Grey Cup

The 100th Grey Cup is being played today in Toronto featuring the Toronto Argonauts and is expecting a large TV audience in Canada's biggest television market. Last year, the match took place in Vancouver with 4.6 million viewers staring at television screens across the country. Here are some other figures from last year Grey Cup final, as per TSN's press release:

Santa Parade viewers rise, AMAs down by 10%

Sunday was a big night for TV as it was filled with specials including CFL Eastern and Western Finals, the American Music Awards, and the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. Here are the ratings of those programs and of the regular programs via Bill Brioux:

Show	Network	Audience	Start
Disney – The Game Plan	CBC	559,000	05:00 PM
Heartland	CBC	527,000	07:00 PM
The Phantoms	CBC	446,000	08:00 PM
The National	CBC	506,000	10:00 PM
CFL – East Final: TOR vs MTL	TSN	1,432,000	01:00 PM
CFL – West Final: CGY vs BC	TSN	1,855,000	04:30 PM
NFL – Baltimore vs Pittsburgh	TSN	556,000	07:00 PM
Toronto Santa Claus Parade	CTV	1,081,000	04:30 PM
American Music Awards	CTV	1,711,000	08:00 PM
The Simpsons	Global	919,000	08:00 PM
Family Guy	Global	698,000	09:00 PM
Good Wife	Global	742,000	10:00 PM