CBC draws record audiences for World Cup Final

[hugh]

A record number of Canadians tuned into coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa final on Sunday according to BBM overnight measurements.

The combined total audience of 5.82 million for the final was more than double the combined audience to the English and French live broadcasts of the Final in 2006.

[Francois Caron]

The CBC did a fantastic job with this broadcast, first by using what I believe was the generic English feed staffed by professional commentators, and second by providing a highly reliable Internet feed which suffered very few video dropouts and practically no audio dropouts.

[din556]

how may watched the final on ABC in Canada? I tried to avoid CBC and watched the final on ABC.

[DT1]

I watched the first 20-30 minutes on ABC but when I switched over to CBC the picture was much better (at least on Bell anyway)

[james99]

Watching "soccer" on ABC is like watching hockey on NBC. No thanx.

[doglips]

Martin Tyler (abc) vs John Helm (cbc) and better picture (abc) = no brainer.

[hugh]

Well, I liked the announcing on CBC much better than ABC. As far as PQ, CBC looked great.

[U]

What is also interesting are the streaming numbers:

- Semi-finals: 353,957 total, 159,000 concurrent
- Finals: 231,649 total (couldn't find concurrent numbers)

This is for the CBC only... The company streaming the event worldwide (Akamai) reported streaming traffic of 1.5Tb/s at peak with 1.6M concurrent streams. Pretty impressive!

I watched a few games on the net while at work and must admit that the quality was pretty good. Quite watchable IMO.

[Andrew1]

Overall the CBC did a good job but there is no doubt long time fans will have preferred the commentary of the final on ABC as John Helm adds nothing to the broadcasts, unless you count pointless chat about things other than football. (The same cannot be said for the half time stuff on ABC. Alexi Lalas and Chris Fowler are probably still sobbing about their precious Ghana being ousted by Uruguay).

One criticism I have of all British commentators (including non-English like Andy Gray) is that they don't seem to know anything about the sport beyond the overrated EPL and English football in general. I think Tyler, Helm and the rest - including the commentators on the Beeb and ITV - could talk longer about an obscure sub who once played for Millwall or West Brom than they could about all the players in Spain and Germany put together. It would be nice if the poor performances by EPL players and England would lead some British commentators and analysts who get to do international tournaments like the WC to reflect on their obsession with the EPL to the exclusion of other leagues, but I know it won't happen.

[PFD]

Originally Posted by din556

how may watched the final on ABC in Canada? I tried to avoid CBC and watched the final on ABC.

Why would yo do that?

[NB Josh]

Originally Posted by james99

Watching "soccer" on ABC is like watching hockey on NBC. No thanx.

Nah, I think that listening to John Helm call a game is like listening to Joe Buck call the Super Bowl; no matter how long he has been calling the sport, he is still terrible at it. I'll take Martin Tyler and Efan Ekoku (two Brits BTW) over him any day of the week. Tyler is right there with Jim Nantz (NFL), Chris Cuthbert (CFL & NHL) and Mike Breen (NBA) as the guy who I want calling the big game. There isn't a better football commentator in the (English speaking) world.

I did prefer CBC's studio show, considering that I can't stand Lalas and McManaman. A studio of Mike Tirico, Ruud Gullit and Roberto Martinez would have been better.

Andrew, I agree with you somewhat. I found that Kevin Keatings particularly does it. It seemed that every game he commentated on, he had to mention every player who played in the Premier League and what team they played for. He didn't do it so much for players who played elsewhere. Then again, they all commentate on Premier League (and even Championship) matches all season, so its somewhat excusable. Think about it, how much do we know about the Kontinental Hockey League or Nippon Professional Baseball (albeit the gap between football leagues and leagues in other sports isn't as big).

[tofinoguy]

I watched the final on ABC for the same reason- not a fan of Helm.

[taxtwit]

Originally Posted by DT1

I watched the first 20-30 minutes on ABC but when I switched over to CBC the picture was much better (at least on Bell anyway)

I watched the first 20-30 minutes and fell asleep - surprised I lasted that long

[SportsFan]

Originally Posted by james99

Watching "soccer" on ABC is like watching hockey on NBC. No thanx.

What didn't you like about the World Cup on ABC?

I actually do switch over to NBC's hockey sometimes. 'Doc' Emrick calls a good game.

[hugh]

Kind of off topic guys. We have a FIFA programming thread for discussion of announcers. I created this thread to highlight the huge increase in overall audiences.

I'm curious as to why the 2010 edition of World Cup soccer drew so much higher audiences.

Any thoughts on that one?