CTV says 10.5M watched Live 8
TORONTO (CP) – Despite the lure of the great outdoors on a long weekend, a “stunning” 10.5 million Canadians tuned in Saturday to watch some or all of Live 8 on television, CTV said Monday.
The network said one in three Canadians – and 45 per cent of all households – tuned in for the 18-hour, 23-minute broadcast at some point, according to data from BBM Canada.
Peak viewership was over two million at 8:16 p.m. EDT when Neil Young closed the show at Park Place in Barrie, Ont., with Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World. Coverage of the Canadian concert lasted nine hours and 20 minutes and had an average audience of 1.1 million viewers per minute.
“The television audience is even more remarkable when considering that the Live 8 event fell on Canada’s July 1 long-weekend and doesn’t reflect audiences watching from seasonal residences (cottages),” CTV said in a statement.
The broadcast showed every act on the stage in Barrie – there were more than 20 – as well as international hits, sometimes on a split screen, in other locations, including London, Paris, Philadelphia, Johannesburg, Moscow, Berlin, Rome and Tokyo.
Around the world there were an estimated two billion Live 8 television viewers. The free concerts were organized by musician Bob Geldof to pressure leaders of the G8 countries at their meeting in Scotland later this week to increase aid to poverty-stricken African countries.
CTV said 18 separate feeds were pulled in from all the international concerts, and 23 cameras were in position for the Barrie event.
“Never before have the people across this company pulled together to do the impossible and as such, it was a defining moment for CTV,” Ivan Fecan, CEO of CTV Inc., said in a statement.
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