The battle for Canada’s election night eyeballs between CTV and CBC was almost as tightly contested as the one between incoming prime minister Stephen Harper and the outgoing Paul Martin. In the case of the former, CTV emerged victorious on Jan. 23, although some interesting subplots materialized over the five-hour broadcasts.

According to national numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research, CTV garnered an average of 1.5 million viewers for its Lloyd Robertson-piloted coverage. CBC attracted 1.2 million viewers with Peter Mansbridge at the helm, while Global’s coverage, anchored by Kevin Newman, drew 771,000 viewers.

But while CTV may have won the election night war, CBC took some significant battles.

‘Both [Nielsen and BBM] show CTV having an advantage over CBC,’ says Hugh Dow, president of media buying firm M2 Universal. ‘However, when you get into age groups, a very different picture emerges, particularly with [the key demographic of] adults 18 to 49, where, on both [ratings] services, CBC has a very strong advantage over CTV. And for whatever reason, CTV has attracted very high percentages of adults 55-plus.’

Dow also says that CBC’s election night audience tended to skew more male than CTV’s.

Also, according to Nielsen, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., after the polls were closed, both nets held just over two million viewers throughout the hour, with CTV ahead by only hundreds of viewers, peaking at nearly 2.1 million after 10:30 p.m. However, CBC and CBC Newsworld combined drew 2.3 million over the hour, to CTV/CTV Newsnet’s 2.1 million. But over the course of the night, CTV retained the lion’s share of viewers until coverage for all three networks concluded around 1:30 a.m.

‘Both networks could claim a victory,’ says Dow. ‘It was a two-horse race.’

Except on the West Coast. According to Global, it led CBC and CTV in B.C. – where many felt the election would be decided – with 292,000 viewers, peaking at 364,000 at 8:25 p.m. PST, according to BBM. With British Columbians between 18-49 and adults 25-54, Global’s average audience was 15% ahead of CBC’s and 48% in front of CTV’s.

In the last federal election in 2004, the findings of BBM and Nielsen showed that while CV took the night overall, CBC had more viewers from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.