Live coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony Friday night by Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium has made history as the most-watched television event ever in Canadian history. On average, 13.3 million Canadians were watching every single minute of the 3.5 hour ceremony. The figure eclipses the previous record-holder, the Gold Medal hockey game at Salt Lake City 2002 (10.3 million), by 29%. Airing live across 11 television networks in 11 languages, an astonishing 23 million viewers, or two in every three Canadians (69%), tuned in to some part of the ceremony.

A total of 26 million Canadians, representing 78% of the population, experienced the 2010 Winter Games on the platforms of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium yesterday, according to the Consortium’s CUME (Canadian Unique Multimedia Engagement) index.

Previous Opening Ceremony Audiences:

Calgary 1988:           4.24 million (CTV & TVA)*

Salt Lake City 2002:    3.99 million (CBC & SRC)*

Beijing 2008:                   1.64 million (CBC & SRC)**

Turin 2006:                     1.18 million (CBC & SRC)**

“Canadian athletes will break records at these Games,” said Ivan Fecan, President and Chief Executive Officer, CTVglobemedia and Chief Executive Officer, CTV Inc “This is the first record to be broken.”