Record audience watched Riders vs Als season opener!

News Flash:

On TSN, preliminary overnight data from BBM Canada confirms that 1.06 million viewers watched last night’s thrilling CFL ON TSN season opener featuring Montreal @ Saskatchewan – making this GREY CUP final re-match the most-watched CFL season opening game ever on TSN.

Audience levels peaked at 1.8 million viewers at 10:25 p.m. ET, as the Roughriders looked to have won the game in overtime, but were penalized for having too many men on the field. The Alouettes forced a second overtime, where Saskatchewan recorded a 54-51 double-OT victory over Montreal in the third highest-scoring game in CFL history.

Nice to see! I think the time slot really helped them as well. That number probably doesn’t include RDS either, so all in all fantastic numbers to start the season.

Yes, good point Dust. The record ratings were for the English market only. Normally Montreal games don't draw huge audiences because the majority of their fans are francophone. I'm sure if we added in the RDS ratings, the total audience would be HUGE! :thup:

Any idea what the Calgary game got?

those numbers are aproaching NHL playofff numbers...

Expansion (Ottawa and the game in Moncton), new stadiums, record tv ratings, Grey Cup sold out already and games such as the Als/Riders shootout classic......Wow, I picked the right time to become a fan of the CFL. (Right at the tail end of the 08 season)

Awesome numbers and again on pace for a new record this season.
This indeed bodes well for the new TV contract in a few years as the TSN grossly underpaid the league at the current $15M per season.
This figure should have been double and the next contract will hopefully make up for it.

Agreed. The current contract is absurdly low and with these numbers, that should come to an end real soon (lets hope)

That number does appear low, but the CFL is getting HUGE dividends from the relatively small investment TSN has made in its broadcast rights. It has helped kick start the coverage. and clearly it's working. The CFL won't have a lot to bargain with when the new contract is negotiated, because it can't afford to give up what it has gained with TSN's A+ coverage. Going back to that other network simply shouldn't be an option.

Yes, but still though the league and specifically Tom Wright then the commish made a huge blunder by not negotiating with anyone else but TSN.
Even though we all agree how TSN is the best and have done wonderful things, in “Negotiations 101” you must create a bidding war and keep your cards close to the vest in order to get the proper market value.

Is there anyway to check what the rating were in the US?

I’m actually concerned with how the ratings will turn out for week 1 in the U.S. just because the deal got done so late and the day of the game it didn’t even show up on my Directv guide until an hour or two before kickoff. Luckily I just set my DVR to record all NFLN programs til midnight so I didn’t miss it :smiley: I expect week 2 numbers to be much stronger due to all the positive word of mouth going around in football circles about the Grey Cup rematch/NFL Net debut.

Is the NFL network going to replay the games at all? I didn't think they had that much programming on right now. At least quality stuff and not just filler.