Canada’s major broadcasters are reporting record-breaking numbers for their federal election coverage on April 28, with public broadcaster CBC and Bell Media’s CTV both claiming historic levels of engagement on TV and digital platforms.
CBC says April 28 was its biggest digital day ever, with Canadians spending 3.5 million hours on its platforms. The Canada Votes: 2025 Election Special was streamed 5.2 million times across CBC’s website, app, Gem, YouTube, and TikTok. CBCNews.ca and the CBC News app drew 8 million unique visitors, while YouTube views jumped 228% compared to the 2021 election. On CBC Gem, views more than doubled.
On television and radio, 7.14 million Canadians tuned into CBC and CBC News Network throughout election night, with a combined average audience of 1.25 million — up 25% from 2021. Viewership peaked at 10:11 p.m. ET, when 2.63 million watched Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton announce a projected Liberal government. CBC Radio drew 1.375 million listeners, an 11% increase over the last election.
CBC’s free preview of CBC News Network will continue through May 5 across TV, CBC Gem, CBCNews.ca, and the CBC News app.
Bell Media said CTV also celebrated a record night, reporting that its Election 2025 special was the most-watched federal election coverage on Canadian television. Airing across CTV, CTV News Channel, CP24, and BNN Bloomberg, the special averaged 1.8 million viewers between 9 p.m. and midnight ET — topping its closest competitor by 6%. In the key ages 25-54 demographic, CTV led by 12%.
CTV says its election special reached 9.1 million unique viewers, 28% more than the next closest outlet. The network was first to call the Liberal Party’s win at 10:07 p.m. ET, and later declared a minority government at 10:52 p.m. CTV was also the top conventional network for election coverage, with a 1.2 million average audience.
Digitally, CTV set new internal records, including:
- 3.8 million video views across its digital platforms — the highest ever in a single day
- 2.1 million views on its live election blog — a new record for any CTV News article
- A fivefold increase in streaming compared to the 2021 election
- 16.1 million page views across all federal election content
The 45th Canadian federal election has so far resulted in a Liberal minority government led by Mark Carney with 169 projected seats, while the Conservatives are at 144 seats, Bloc Québécois at 22, NDP at 7 and Green Party with 1 seat.
