The Great Canadian Ratings Report: Women's soccer continues to set records

Prior to the 2015 Women's World Cup of soccer, many hoped that the event would grab the imaginations of Canadians. Some even believed that it would be a big hit both in the stadiums and on television.

But it's doubtful more than a small percentage of soccer lovers believed the tournament would do as well as it has.

For the third straight week, a game involving Canada has set a viewing record for the event. Sunday's Canada-Switzerland game attracted an average of 2.6 million viewers to CTV and TSN. Add in another 200,000 on French-language RDS and you've got a pretty impressive number.

How impressive? Well, the deciding game of this year's Stanley Cup final drew 2.62 million -- and the Stanley Cup is the gold standard when it comes to sports television in Canada. Yeah, it was Chicago against Tampa Bay and this is Canada against the world, but still the World Cup numbers are incredible.

To date, Canada's games have averaged 2 million viewers, with 6.9 million tuning in to some or all of Sunday's game.

Not surprisingly, this year's tournament is blowing away the 2011 event. The average for Canada's first three games was more than four times for the comparable number on CBC and Sportsnet in 2011 (459,000.)

The explanation? For one, this tournament is in Canada, so there was a lot more hype leading up to the event. Secondly, Canada didn't go out three straight like it did in 2011. Thirdly, because the games are in Canada, Bell Media (CTV and TSN) is airing Canada's games in prime time, which always ensures a bigger audience. The only prime-time games in 2011 happened on weekends.

But how do you explain why many of the games not involving Canada are drawing so well? A match between Korea and France on Sunday averaged 687,000 viewers, amazing considering that neither team should have huge followings in Canada.

The answer might be the fact that Bell Media is airing more games than has been the case in the past and that has generated more interest.

There's also an interesting side story to this tournament: It's engaging women and girls. Normally, women and girls stay away from sports the way the Toronto Maple Leafs stay away from winning, but as of last week Bell Media reports that four of every 10 girls under the age of 17 have watched some of the tournament.

In addition, 7.6 million females have tuned in at some point. That's certainly something women's sports can build on.

As for building, the Toronto Blue Jays are constructing some amazing ratings of late. Friday's game against Baltimore topped the 1 million mark and the weekend series averaged 894,000 viewers. The weekend series produced the second, third and fourth most-watched games of the year. The only one that produced more viewers was the season opener.

And this is only June. If the Jays can stay in this, they could be averaging a million viewers a game by September. 

Here are the most-watched English-language sports events from the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. Women's World Cup, Canada vs. Switzerland, Sunday, CTV-TSN: 2,600,000

2. MLB, Orioles at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 1,020,000

3. MLB, Orioles at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 842,000

4. MLB, Orioles at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 832,000

5. Women's World Cup, France vs. Korea, Sunday, CTV-TSN: 687,000

6. Women's World Cup, Chinca vs. Cameroon, Saturday, CTV: 642,000

7. Golf, U.S. Open final round, Sunday, TSN: 421,000 (Fox audience not measured)

8. Women's World Cup, Germany vs. Sweden, Saturday, CTV: 339,000

9. Golf, U.S. Open third round, Saturday, TSN: 326,000 (Fox audience not measured)

10. Golf, U.S. Open (evening), Friday, TSN: 278,000 (Fox audience not measured)

11. Golf, U.S. Open (afternoon), Friday, TSN: 211,000  (Fox audience not measured)

12. Auto racing, F1 Austrian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 203,000

13. MLB, Astros at Mariners, Sunday, Sportsnet: 135,000

14. Auto racing, F1 Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, Saturday, TSN: 128,000

15. Soccer, UEFA under-21, Serbia vs. Czech Republic, Saturday, TSN: 100,000

THREE TO WATCH

Drafty doings: For the folks who love the sight of eager young men in suits donning jerseys and caps, this is your week. The NBA draft is on TSN2 at 7 p.m. ET Thursday and Sportsnet has hockey's version on Friday, starting with a pre-draft show at 6:30 p.m. ET. We expect there'll be some mention of Connor McDavid.

Real football: Those not watching the drafts will likely be glued to the return of real football, as opposed to what the rest of the world calls football, which is being played by women on various Canadian soccer pitches this month. The Canadian Football League season kicks off the 2015 season with the Montreal Alouettes hosting the Ottawa Redblacks (7:30 p.m. ET, TSN.) This is the debut of TSN's Thursday Night Football, which is a lot like Friday Night Football but on Thursdays.

The other football: Canada faces its toughest challenge yet on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, CTV) when it goes up against sixth-ranked England in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup. Seeing that Canada is ranked eighth and hasn't exactly been a goal machine so far means they'll have to be on their game to get through to the semifinals.