7.05 Million see Virtue and Moir Win Gold

    
           Vancouver 2010 Audience Day 11 Recap: 7.05 Million see
                           Virtue and Moir Win Gold

     - Women's Hockey sees its largest audience yet as 3.6 million watch
                           Canada defeat Finland -

           - Rogers Sportsnet achieves first-ever two million plus
                         audience with Free Dance -

       - OLYMPIC MORNING on CTV has now reached more than half of the
          country's population, seen by nearly 17 million viewers -

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VANCOUVER, Feb. 23 /CNW/ - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's first North American gold in Ice Dance was witnessed by 7.05 million viewers last night at 11:38 p.m. ET as their scores were announced. More than 15 million Canadians watched some part of the four-hour event, which achieved an average audience of 3.5 million viewers. Ice Dancing also proved to be a huge hit for Rogers Sportsnet, which achieved its highest audience ever and its first two million plus audience with 2.03 million viewers alone. After Day 11, 97.8% of the population - or 32.76 million Canadians - have engaged with Vancouver 2010 coverage, according to Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium's CUME index.

    
    Day 11 Average Audiences
    ------------------------

    OLYMPIC MORNING/LE RÉVEIL OLYMPIQUE                            652,000

    OLYMPIC DAYTIME/JEUX OLYMPIQUES EN JOURNÉE                 2.3 million

    OLYMPIC PRIME TIME/
    JEUX OLYMPIQUES AUX HEURES DE GRANDE ÉCOUTE                  5 million

    Additional Day 11 Highlights - Television
    -----------------------------------------
    

- 25.2 million viewers watched Consortium coverage yesterday, representing three quarters of the Canadian population.

- The Women's Hockey semifinal win for Canada over Finland was the most-watched sporting event of the day with 3.6 million viewers, the largest audience for any Women's Hockey game so far and 42% higher than the CAN/SVK game.

- The Victory Ceremony in which Virtue and Moir were presented with their gold medal was watched on average by 5.24 million viewers.

- Curling continues to be a big draw: 1.1 million watched skip Cheryl Bernard lead Canada to a win over Sweden on Sportsnet while 652,000 saw Kevin Martin and his squad remain undefeated with a win over Great Britain on TSN.

- JEUX OLYMPIQUES AUX HEURES DE GRANDE ÉCOUTE delivered 560,000 viewers for V/CPAC, RDS and RIS, while JEUX OLYMPIQUES EN JOURNÉE was watched by 322,000 viewers.

    
    Additional Day 11 Highlights - Online
    -------------------------------------
    

- Day 11 saw another 12 million page views on CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca.

- 2.2 million videos were viewed, including 1.3 million live event video views.

- Top on demand video was the highlight reel from the Men's Canada vs. USA hockey game (www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/results-and-schedules/match=ihm400a06/highlights.html) with 156,000 views, followed by (for the fourth day running) Women's Hockey Canada v. Sweden highlights (www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/results-and-schedules/match=ihw400a05/highlights.html). Various videos featuring Virtue and Moir take the final three spots in the Top 5, and include their last ice dancing performance (www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/results-and-schedules/event=fsx030000/phase=fsx030201/highlights.html) before their Gold Medal winning skate (www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html?assetid=dd34d664-d55e-4f19-ace0-e8d9a49a1f89), followed by Olympic Journey - Virtue and Moir (www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html).

- Virtue and Moir also dominated the top photo galleries on Day 11. The Ice Dancing Gallery (www.ctvolympics.ca/photos/galleries/id=48809/gallery.html) was in top spot, their dedicated gallery (www.ctvolympics.ca/photos/galleries/id=49623/gallery.html#/50101) and the Free Dance Gallery (www.ctvolympics.ca/photos/galleries/id=49623/gallery.html) are all in the Top 5. Latest Photos (www.ctvolympics.ca/photos/index.html) and Wipeouts (www.ctvolympics.ca/photos/galleries/id=43768/gallery.html) round out the list.

- Team Canada curlers remain determinedly in the top spots for most viewed athletes with Cheryl Bernard (www.ctvolympics.ca/team-canada/athletes/athlete=4052/index.html) and Kevin Martin (www.ctvolympics.ca/team-canada/athletes/athlete=3327/index.html) both claiming Top 5 status. Figure skaters Joannie Rochette (www.ctvolympics.ca/team-canada/athletes/athlete=3250/index.html) and Tessa Virtue (www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/news/newsid=49724.html#virtue+moir+make+history+with+dance+gold) are also in the Top 5, along with double Gold Medal winning German Biathlon competitor Magdalena Neuner (www.ctvolympics.ca/biathlon/news/newsid=48637.html#germanys+neuner+wins+second+gold+medal).

- Top sports are No. 1 Hockey (www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/index.html), No. 2 Figure Skating (www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/index.html), No. 3 Curling (http://www.ctvolympics.ca/curling/index.html), No. 4 Nordic (www.ctvolympics.ca/nordic-combined/index.html) Combined and No. 5 Freestyle (www.ctvolympics.ca/freestyle-skiing/index.html) Skiing.

To view the complete release please click http://ctvmedia.ca/olympics

For further information: Jim Quan, CTV Inc., [phone], [email protected]; Carolyn Fell, CTV Inc., [phone], [email protected]; Pamela Mollica, Consortium, [phone], [email protected]; Andrea Goldstein, Consortium, [phone], [email protected]