March 11, 2011

Mid Season Report: TSN is Canada’s #1 Choice for Sports

– TSN is the #1 specialty channel in Canada across all key male and female demographics –
– TSN has registered record-breaking audiences for several marquee events –
– TSN more than doubles the audience of its closest competitor –
– TSN expands its sports coverage with major acquisitions, launch of TSN Radio 1050 and new TSN apps –

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TORONTO, ON (March 11, 2011) – From the Montreal Alouettes’ GREY CUP victory to Team Canada’s heartbreaking loss in the IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP, Canadians continue to turn to TSN for the biggest moments in sports. At the halfway mark of the 2010-11 broadcast season, TSN continues to be Canada’s Sports Leader with record-breaking audiences, more of the biggest moments in sports and a continued commitment to give fans expanded coverage across multiple platforms.

Below is snapshot of TSN’s performance midway through the 2010-11 broadcast season.

TSN’s Audiences
Audience data from BBM Canada confirms that Canadians are embracing TSN like never before.

• Halfway through the broadcast season, TSN continues to be the top-ranked specialty channel in Canada – in all key male and female demographics.

• Since September 2010, TSN’s total average minute audience (178,000 viewers 2+) more than doubles that of its closest competitor (87,000 viewers 2+). This is the largest gap recorded in the past seven years.

• Since September 2010, TSN has broadcasted 10 events that have recorded audiences of more than 2 million viewers and 36 events that have recorded audiences of more than one million viewers. By comparison, no other specialty channel has recorded an audience over 2 million viewers this season and there have only been eight events on specialty television that have registered audiences of more than one million viewers.

• The 2011 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP gold medal game registered the highest audience ever recorded on TSN with 6.1 million viewers.

Key Properties Performance
All of TSN’s core broadcast properties delivered substantial audiences in 2010:

• Through 55 games, NHL ON TSN is averaging 728,000 viewers, up 2% compared to last season’s record setting audience numbers.

• The 98th GREY CUP registered 6.04 million viewers on TSN and RDS, making it the second most watched Grey Cup ever and the fourth most watched program of the broadcast season just behind the Super Bowl XLV, the 83rd Academy Awards and the 2011 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP gold medal game.

• Overall, the average audience for TSN’s coverage of the seven 2011 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP games featuring Team Canada was a record 3.2 million viewers.

• Overall, an average audience of 510,000 viewers watched more than 60 hours of 2011 SCOTTIES TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS coverage – making it the most watched Scotties tournament ever. The final had an average audience of 1.08 million viewers – the second most watched Scotties final ever.

• With 700,000 viewers, the 2011 DAYTONA 500 on TSN was the most-watched edition of “The Great American Race” ever on Canadian television.

• On a competitive NHL Trade Deadline Day, Canadians made TRADECENTRE ’11, their first choice for trade news, opinion and analysis with an average audience of 268,000 viewers watching the 10-hour live broadcast – the most ever in TSN history and nearly quadrupling the average audience delivered by TSN’s closest competitor.

• SPORTSCENTRE’S late edition on TSN has 76% more viewers on average than its closest competitor.

Memorable Moments on TSN and TSN2
• Team Canada gives up a three goal lead and suffers a heartbreaking loss to Russia at the 2011 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
• CFL’s first-ever regular season game in Atlantic Canada
• Rookie sensation Blake Griffin soars over a car to clinch the NBA ALL-STAR SLAM DUNK CONTEST
• SCOTTIES showdown between rival curling queens Jennifer Jones and Cathy Overton-Clapham, with Overton-Clapham taking a dramatic victory over her former teammate
• Twenty-year-old Trevor Bayne becomes the youngest winner in DAYTONA 500 history, taking the checkered flag in a stunning race that featured a record 74 lead changes among 22 drivers
• At the 17th hole of the final match, Graeme McDowell and Team Europe held onto its narrow lead over a rallying Team USA to win a gripping RYDER CUP
• Cheryl Bernard narrowly missed a chance to make sports history losing a hard fought battle to Kevin Martin in the TSN CURLING SKINS GAME
• Chris Bosh blows kisses to the Air Canada Centre crowd but Toronto Raptors fans show no love for its former star in his return as a member of the Miami Heat
• The Seattle Seahawks clinched the NFC West Division crown with a victory over the St. Louis Rams in the season's final game to become the first team to reach the playoffs with a losing record
• Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel is the last player taken in the first-ever NHL ALL-STAR PLAYER FANTASY DRAFT


TSN Radio
TSN, along with CTV Inc. and CHUM Radio, announced that TSN RADIO 1050 will launch on April 13. Debuting just as the NHL and NBA playoffs heat up, the highly-anticipated all-sports radio station will be available to sports fans in the Greater Toronto area on AM 1050 and nationally online at TSN.ca and on TSN MOBILE.

The next evolution of the TSN brand, TSN RADIO 1050 will feature best-in-class analysis from TSN’s sports experts and insiders and coverage of live sporting events such as Toronto Argonauts games during the 2011 CFL season. Headlining TSN RADIO 1050’s weekday programming lineup is the station’s marquee morning show, THE MIKE RICHARDS SHOW, with host Mike Richards.

TSN2
• TSN2 continues to increase its distribution and is now available in 5.5 million Canadian homes across all major television service providers in both standard and high definition.

• BBM Canada data confirms that TSN2 is the top-ranked digital sports channel in Canada with an average audience that more than doubles its closest competitor.

TSN HD
• TSN has the highest HD audience of any specialty channel; TSN2 ranks as the third highest channel in HD audiences of all specialty channels (analog and digital channels).

TSN Digital
TSN enjoyed tremendous growth in the digital world with TSN.ca once again proving to be Canada’s online source for sports news and programming.

• TSN.ca remains Canada’s primary source for breaking sports news with more than 988 million total page views to date (September 2010 - present) – a new site record (source: Omniture).

• TSN Video Player complements TSN and TSN2’s live programming by featuring more than 500 events on-demand, including the 2011 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP, TRADECENTRE, the 2011 SCOTTIES TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS and the 2011 TIM HORTONS BRIER. To date, TSN.ca has registered more than 60 million video views (September 2010-present), marking a 64% increase compared to the same time period last year.

• TSN MOBILE’s apps for iPhone and BlackBerry continues to be popular among sports fans on-the-go with more than 1.15 million downloads.

• TRADECENTRE app for iPad and iPhone was the favourite on NHL Trade Deadline Day, as the ranking on iTunes showed that the TRADECENTRE app was the #1 Free Sports App in Canada for both iPad and iPhone on February 28. With more than 180,000 downloads, the TRADECENTRE app for iPad was the fourth most popular free iPad app in Canada on NHL Trade Deadline Day, while the TRADECENTRE app for iPhone was the second most popular for the device.

• TSN’s Fan Page on Facebook continues to be one of Canada’s biggest fan pages on the social network with over 212,000 fans – more than double i

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