Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC secured impressive audience figures for its coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, especially for its streaming platforms.
In total, 30.5 million viewers in Canada tuned into the games – at which Canada won 21 medals, including five golds – across CBC's English and French-language networks, and via its various broadcast partners for the event (TSN, Sportsnet, and RDS).
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The various digital platforms attached to these networks – including CBC Gem and ICI Tou TV – recorded a total of 89 million specific Winter Olympics streaming requests during the games, which ran between February 6 and 22 (including the opening and closing ceremonies) in the Milan Cortina region.
The figure of 89 million is over triple the number of streams activated during the previous Winter Olympics, held in Beijing four years ago (29 million).
Indeed, the CBC digital and streaming outlets recorded over 42 million hours of content watched, with CBC Gem specifically seeing a 632% increase from Beijing 2022 in the average time a viewer spent streaming Olympic-related content through the service.
On average, the daily audience share for CBC TV's coverage of the games was 25%, up 11% from Beijing.
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By GlobalDataCBC holds rights to the Olympics in Canada through a tie-up unveiled in April 2022, which covers the games all the way through the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane. It is also set to cover the upcoming Winter Paralympics.
The most-watched Winter Olympics moment on CBC came on the last day of the games – Sunday – as 8.7 million viewers tuned into the final moments of the Canada v USA men's hockey gold medal match (which the US won in overtime).
Indeed, the men's hockey team's run to the final generated all of the top five most-watched moments for CBC and its network partners.
In terms of other Olympic viewing numbers, Warner Bros. Discovery (Europe and the UK), NBC (the US), and the BBC (UK) all disclosed impressive streaming audiences.
The timezone – with these games being held in Europe, as opposed to China four years ago – will have undoubtedly contributed to the 2026 Winter Olympics feeling more accessible to both European and North American audiences. The last Winter Games held in Western Europe also took place in Italy, in Turin, 20 years ago.
