Despite a strong medal haul for Canada, the CBC’s Winter Olympics coverage achieved only half the viewers in primetime as it did with the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Although the Ceeb’s live afternoon broadcasts were up 14% over Salt Lake, the mostly recap and tape-delayed coverage in the evenings paled in comparison to what rival nets offered.

The 16-day Turin Winter Games averaged 1.2 million in primetime, according to Nielsen data, down from 2.4 million in 2002. The Games faced stiff competition from five episodes of American Idol on CTV, which averaged 2.8 million, two eps of Survivor on Global, averaging 2.7 million, and other major draws, such as Grey’s Anatomy and CSI, according to BBM. Unlike previous years, competitors in the U.S. and Canada did not back off during the Games, instead pushing new episodes of the top shows. NBC’s coverage of the Olympics also suffered.

Another significant blow to CBC’s Olympics ratings was the failure of the men’s hockey team, which was defeated before the medal round on Feb. 22 in a game that drew 2.3 million. The Olympic gold medal men’s hockey game, between Sweden and Finland, drew just 1.1 million on Feb. 26. More than 10.5 million Canadians watched Team Canada win the gold in Salt Lake. Canada’s women’s team drew a strong 2.2 million in its gold medal win on Feb. 20 at 2:30 p.m. CBC afternoon coverage for the Games, when most events were live, averaged 1.4 million viewers, which is up from the 1.2 million it averaged in 2002.

Reports have said CBC may have to give rebates to its advertisers for not delivering on its pre-Games ratings forecasts, but Doug Brooks, CBC’s GM of media sales and marketing, doubts there will be a need.

‘We also give ourselves room if the audience isn’t quite to our forecast,’ says Brooks. ‘Until all the details come in, we won’t know with certainty, but at this point it looks like we’ll make our audience commitments.’

Claude Galipeau, CBC’s executive director of digital programming and business development, says the Ceeb’s on-demand and mobile Olympic content was ‘successful,’ although hard numbers were not available. Telecom Bell says it had trouble keeping its Samsung a920 – a handset model capable of receiving Olympic streaming video – on retail shelves during the Games, and Rogers says it is contemplating similar arrangements for upcoming events based on its Olympic on-demand results.

‘We were able to demonstrate we could do this technically, and on the other hand we demonstrated that we got the creative correct,’ says Galipeau.

But the fact CBC’s Olympic numbers are down should not be surprising, according to Florence Ng, VP of broadcast investment at media buyer Zenith Optimedia in Toronto, who argues that judging Turin against Salt Lake ‘is not a fair comparison.’

‘If we really look back – forgetting about the Olympics – at a program that ran four years ago that is still running now, the delivery is not the same,’ she says. ‘There is a lot more fragmentation.’

Live coverage of the closing ceremonies drew a hearty 1.9 million, with the primetime repeat garnering 1.1 million against the finale of Dancing with the Stars on CTV, which drew 2.1 million. CBC will broadcast the 2008 Summer Games from Beijing, before CTV airs the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.