The Toronto Raptors‘ historic championship-clinching win will go down in the Canadian television record books.
Bell Media says a Canadian TV NBA record average audience of 7.7 million viewers watched the Raptors win the NBA title in Game 6 of the Finals on Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors.
The number includes viewers on TSN, CTV and the RDS French-language broadcast, but does not include Canadians watching the American feed.
The previous record was 6.4 million for Game 5 of the Finals on Rogers-owned Sportsnet and Citytv, a figure that does not include those watching the French-language broadcast.
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Bell Media says 15.9 million unique Canadian viewers tuned in at some point of Game 6. The audience peaked at 9.99 million for the final minute of the game.
In Toronto and Hamilton, 82 per cent of people watching television had the Raptors game on — the highest sports total ever for that market, excluding the Olympics.
The Canadian sport average audience record was set in 2010 for the Olympic men’s hockey championship game in Vancouver when 16.7 million watched on a host of networks as Canada beat the United States on Sidney Crosby’s golden goal.
Bell and Rogers, co-majority owners of Raptors parent company Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, split the NBA team’s broadcast schedule.
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