NHL TV Ratings and Revenue

[ColoradoHockeyFan]

No, it means 1.7% of household tuned into the game.

And this is the meaningful number when assessing the degree to which the overall population of the market is engaged/interested. And as miserable as that 1.7 is, it is actually the highest number quoted by the article for Rangers playoff games in the New York market. There's a 1.4 quoted in there also, as well as a remarkably low 1.6 for an over-the-air broadcast on NBC. These types of numbers for local playoff games (not to mention a succeeding playoff team) suggest virtual irrelevance in the market.

 

[MAROONSRoad]

And this is the meaningful number when assessing the degree to which the overall population of the market is engaged/interested. And as miserable as that 1.7 is, it is actually the highest number quoted by the article for Rangers playoff games in the New York market. There's a 1.4 quoted in there also, as well as a remarkably low 1.6 for an over-the-air broadcast on NBC. These types of numbers for local playoff games (not to mention a succeeding playoff team) suggest virtual irrelevance in the market.

I don't believe that TV Ratings are meaningless in accessing interest in a market; quite the contrary and they are the basis for determining how much advertisors will pay for TV adverts as well as board signage, etc.

As you mention, the 1.7 rating was the best achieved in the market that night. From the article: "At least the Rangers did better than Sabres-Islanders (FSNY, 0.8) and Devils-Lightning (FSNY2, 0.4)."

That's 0.8% of all households for the Islanders and 0.4% for the Devils. Given attendance figures and gate revenue also, you really have to wonder if there is at least one team too many in the greater NYC market.

GHOST

 

[ColoradoHockeyFan]

I don't believe that TV Ratings are meaningless in accessing interest in a market; quite the contrary and they are the basis for determining how much advertisors will pay for TV adverts as well as board signage, etc.

Did you perhaps misread my post? I was making the point that the TV rating is a meaningful number.

 

[MAROONSRoad]

Did you perhaps misread my post? I was making the point that the TV rating is a meaningful number.

Yes, I did. My apologies.

GHOST

 

[Bobby Orr]

And this is the meaningful number when assessing the degree to which the overall population of the market is engaged/interested. And as miserable as that 1.7 is, it is actually the highest number quoted by the article for Rangers playoff games in the New York market. There's a 1.4 quoted in there also, as well as a remarkably low 1.6 for an over-the-air broadcast on NBC. These types of numbers for local playoff games (not to mention a succeeding playoff team) suggest virtual irrelevance in the market.

The scariest sign to me was the Versus ratings towards the end of the year:

a) Pitts/Buff sets a ratings record
b) One week later, Pitts/NYR sets a ratings record, but just by a sliver

NY is only good for the same number of raw viewers as a city 1/12th its size?

 

[MAROONSRoad]

NPR discusses trend in NHL TV ratings

"NHL's ratings still in the deep freeze

Attendance at its games remains strong, but the National Hockey League's TV audience is a fraction of what it once was. Sports-business analyst Ed Derse discusses the NHL's challenges with host Bob Moon."

Quote of sports business analyst Ed Derse, vice president of interactive media at Fox Sports International:

"They did about 1.1 million households on NBC and 160,000 households on Versus, the old OLN. It's the regional ratings that are down, and that's a real problem, 'cause most people watch most games on their regional sports networks. Even poker is out-drawing NHL playoff games these days. And in the long-term perspective, ratings are down more than 50 percent against 10 years ago."


http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/04/19/PM200704197.html

 

[MAROONSRoad]

NPR discusses NHL TV ratings part II

"JAGOW: I am a hockey fan, but apparently I'm one of seven people watching the playoffs, right?

NYAD: It's just about that small. I mean the recent numbers I got for this first round of the playoffs: 267,000 people per game. Nationwide on television. You know and I understand the love and the passion for the game, but the numbers just aren't there. The fans are not there.

.....

NYAD: I wanna like it. I've gone with friends, when I lived in new York, to Rangers games and you know, by the way, this past weekend NASCAR in New York City beat by 38 percent the Rangers playoff game. In New York City? NASCAR? It's just . . . poker! Last weekend poker on NBC beat a playoff game in hockey."

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/04/20/AM200704201.html

 

[MAROONSRoad]

Canadian NHL TV audience numbers (week of April 9 -15)

As reported by BBM Nielsen Media Research:

National:
NHL Playoffs Round 1 Sat: 1,431,000
NHL Playoffs Round 1 WTFSS: 1,168,000

http://www.bbm.ca/en/nat04092007.pdf

Calgary DMA:
NHL Playoffs Round 1 SS, 1:00pm : 85,000
NHL Playoffs Round 1 S, 7:30pm: 67,000
NHL Playoffs Round 1 WTFSS, 5:00pm: 67,000

[suprisingly poor playoff numbers for Calgary that had figures over 100,000 for many regular season games]

http://www.bbm.ca/en/cal04092007.pdf

Vancouver DMA:
NHL Playoffs Round 1 Sat, 6:30pm: 589,000 [number 1 TV audience for the week in Vancouver DMA]
NHL Playoffs Round 1 WTFSS, 4:00pm: 321,000

http://www.bbm.ca/en/van04092007.pdf

 

[MAROONSRoad]

Note on BBM Nielsen city DMA ratings

After posting the above and thinking about Calgary's DMA audience it occured to me that those figures for both Calgary and Vancouver could be considered misleadingly low. Just to be clear, those audience figures refer to the number of viewers within the metropolitian areas of Vancouver and Calgary, not, for example, the total viewers of the Canucks or Flames games in the provinces of British Columbia or Alberta or any other larger market area within Canada.

Here are figures for Canadian city DMA versus provincial DMA Universe Estimates of TV homes from Nielsen Media Research:

Vancouver city DMA Universe Estimate of TV homes 1,329,000; British Columbia DMA Universe Estimate of TV Homes 1,729,000

Calgary city DMA Universe Estimate of TV homes 551,000; Alberta DMA Universe Estimate of TV Homes 1,270,000 (obviously a lot of that population would be Oilers' fans).

The figures in my last post for the Canucks and Flames refer to the audience within the city DMA, not provincial DMA or other market area.

http://www.nielsenmedia.ca/

If the above is correct, you have to be amazed by Vancouver's audience of 589,000 in a DMA of 1,329,000 TV households, which would be over a 40 rating in Nielsen terms!

GHOST

 

[Randall Graves*]

"JAGOW: I am a hockey fan, but apparently I'm one of seven people watching the playoffs, right?

NYAD: It's just about that small. I mean the recent numbers I got for this first round of the playoffs: 267,000 people per game. Nationwide on television. You know and I understand the love and the passion for the game, but the numbers just aren't there. The fans are not there.

.....

NYAD: I wanna like it. I've gone with friends, when I lived in new York, to Rangers games and you know, by the way, this past weekend NASCAR in New York City beat by 38 percent the Rangers playoff game. In New York City? NASCAR? It's just . . . poker! Last weekend poker on NBC beat a playoff game in hockey."

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/04/20/AM200704201.html

Honestly I think Americans are getting stupider.

I used to be a hardcore baseball fan up until the past few years and realized that baseball, is really a snoozer. There is no action, I think more people like it because it's engraved in them at childhood(IE: Watching the Yankees on Sunday afternoon with dad). Now that I don't play competitive baseball anymore I have no interest in it, it's just so...boring. Maybe some hardcore baseball fans here who don't play can explain the allure.

Nascar..just a bunch of cars going in circles, sometimes there are crashes but that's not action, that's sad.

The NBA is more tolerable to me than baseball, atleast there's not all this standing around, for hockey to grow I think you need to get the kids playing and watching and wait it out. The NHL for the most part doesn't have a problem drawing at the gate, perhaps more needs to be done on TV to make it feel like you are there. I would like hockey to find a way for the view to pick their own camera angles to watch the game. On Dishnetwork college football games on TBS have about 8 channels where you can watch at different angles. I wish we could figure a way to incorporate this.

 

[jsginsocal]

All of us Americans must be getting stupider. I mean - this weekend the NHL on NBC pulled in a .9 overnight rating for Calgary vs. Detroit. Overnight ratings are usually higher than the final rating, which is even more frightening. The NJ Tampa game pulled in a 1.1. These numbers are much worse than even last years playoff ratings.
Anybody think some of this problem is attributable to the fact that the NHL has no exposure on ESPN? Without exposure on ESPN, the "casual" NHL fan most likely won't tune in.
Its a bummer of a time to be an NHL fan in the states. I hardly know another person who tunes in...

 

[AdmiralPred]

All of us Americans must be getting stupider. I mean - this weekend the NHL on NBC pulled in a .9 overnight rating for Calgary vs. Detroit. Overnight ratings are usually higher than the final rating, which is even more frightening. The NJ Tampa game pulled in a 1.1. These numbers are much worse than even last years playoff ratings.
Anybody think some of this problem is attributable to the fact that the NHL has no exposure on ESPN? Without exposure on ESPN, the "casual" NHL fan most likely won't tune in.
Its a bummer of a time to be an NHL fan in the states. I hardly know another person who tunes in...

Or... ESPN is getting smarter. Are they doing better with the programing that has replaced the NHL? Also, it was ESPN that passed on the option to pick up the NHL and passed on matching Comcast's offer to broadcast games.

 

[jkrdevil]

"NHL's ratings still in the deep freeze

Attendance at its games remains strong, but the National Hockey League's TV audience is a fraction of what it once was. Sports-business analyst Ed Derse discusses the NHL's challenges with host Bob Moon."

Quote of sports business analyst Ed Derse, vice president of interactive media at Fox Sports International:

"They did about 1.1 million households on NBC and 160,000 households on Versus, the old OLN. It's the regional ratings that are down, and that's a real problem, 'cause most people watch most games on their regional sports networks. Even poker is out-drawing NHL playoff games these days. And in the long-term perspective, ratings are down more than 50 percent against 10 years ago."


http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/04/19/PM200704197.html

I would like to see a comparison of the other sports over the Last 10 years. I would be willing to bet those ratings are down by about 50% as well.

 

[MAROONSRoad]

I would like to see a comparison of the other sports over the Last 10 years. I would be willing to bet those ratings are down by about 50% as well.

Good question. I haven't see the data, but believe that the NBA ratings are way down since the Michael Jordan/Bulls era. I'd be curious to see the NFL and MLB figures. I'd be suprised if the NFL's ratings are down that much.

As regards Canadian TV ratings for NHL, the season following the lockout was an all time high according to several media reports and there are more games televised now than ten years ago.

GHOST

 

[voxel]

Everybody is quoting 1.1 and 0.9 and 0.4 ratings, etc.. but that's doesn't say anything to me. Out of what?

i.e

8:00pm-9:00pm time slot

CSI 4.1/10
Barney + Friends 2.0/10
NHL playoffs 1.1/10
...

The ratings can not stand alone... they are a "share" of the total viewers at a specific time slot.

 

[jkrdevil]

Good question. I haven't see the data, but believe that the NBA ratings are way down since the Michael Jordan/Bulls era. I'd be curious to see the NFL and MLB figures. I'd be suprised if the NFL's ratings are down that much.

As regards Canadian TV ratings for NHL, the season following the lockout was an all time high according to several media reports and there are more games televised now than ten years ago.

GHOST

The reason why I ask is because I remember there was an article on foxsports a few month ago that showed ratings for the Cup Finals over the last 5 years have fallen at the same rate as the World Series, and NBA Finals (30%). So each falling around 50% over double that time period isn't out of the question.

 

[MAROONSRoad]

Everybody is quoting 1.1 and 0.9 and 0.4 ratings, etc.. but that's doesn't say anything to me. Out of what?

i.e

8:00pm-9:00pm time slot

CSI 4.1/10
Barney + Friends 2.0/10
NHL playoffs 1.1/10
...

The ratings can not stand alone... they are a "share" of the total viewers at a specific time slot.

The Nielsen sites provide an explanation of the ratings system. All ratings relate to a particular DMA, designated market area. In the case of national broadcasts, the DMA is the total US TV market of about 100 million TV households. A 1.0 rating equals 1% of households, or 1 million households nationally, a 4.1 equals 4.1% of households, etc. The "share" is a different figure that refers to the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a specific program. The share is therefore an interesting figure, but the rating lets you know the estimated number of households that are watching a program. This information is used by broadcasters and their clients when negotiating fees for advertising time.

Wikipedia has an article on this, or you can check the Nielsen website if you're interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/port...toid=130547f8b5264010VgnVCM100000880a260aRCRD

GHOST

 

[MAROONSRoad]

A sign of the times?

And the top rated TV program in both the USA and Canada is...drum roll please...










American Idol 16.5 rating in USA and about 23.0 in Canada!!


CSI does very well in both countries also.

GHOST

 

[KzooShark]

And the top rated TV program in both the USA and Canada is...drum roll please...










American Idol 16.5 rating in USA and about 23.0 in Canada!!


CSI does very well in both countries also.

GHOST

Anyone now need proof about Americans getting dumber?

 

[Sotnos]

And the top rated TV program in both the USA and Canada is...drum roll please...




American Idol 16.5 rating in USA and about 23.0 in Canada!!

I guess it's true - there's just no accounting for taste.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but most of the people I work with watch Lightning games at least ocassionally and go to games a few times a year. I go to meetings with other managers...and all of them watch games and know what's going on with the team. Conversations about employee policies end up as goalie discussions, fun!

As for the long term numbers...there are a lot more tv channel choices now than ten years ago for most people. None of this should be surprising, really.

 

[Bobby Orr]

The reason why I ask is because I remember there was an article on foxsports a few month ago that showed ratings for the Cup Finals over the last 5 years have fallen at the same rate as the World Series, and NBA Finals (30%). So each falling around 50% over double that time period isn't out of the question.

1996 vs 2006 Regular Season

NHL = 2.1 vs 1.1 = down 47.6%
NBA = 5.0 vs 2.2 = down 56%
MLB = 2.7 vs ? = probably close to the same based on the individual weekly ratings I found. It got a 2.4 for opening weekend this year.

 

[MAROONSRoad]

1996 vs 2006 Regular Season

NHL = 2.1 vs 1.1 = down 47.6%
NBA = 5.0 vs 2.2 = down 56%
MLB = 2.7 vs ? = probably close to the same based on the individual weekly ratings I found. It got a 2.4 for opening weekend this year.

Interesting Bobby Orr. Do you have a link?

Are those ratings for broadcast TV only or do they include cable? I think you'd also have to consider the number of broadcasts. A 2.2 rating on a cable channel for the NBA where many games are shown each week, for example, might indicate good numbers versus the NHL's 0.2 rating on cable channel Versus or 1.1 rating on NBC, which only broadcasts weekend games during the second half of the season. (Not considering Playoff ratings here.)

GHOST

 

[OG6ix]

regular season is one thing, but Playoffs are a whole new animals. The NHL ratings don't change in the post season.

 

[mucker*]

Honestly I think Americans are getting stupider.

I used to be a hardcore baseball fan up until the past few years and realized that baseball, is really a snoozer. There is no action, I think more people like it because it's engraved in them at childhood(IE: Watching the Yankees on Sunday afternoon with dad). Now that I don't play competitive baseball anymore I have no interest in it, it's just so...boring. Maybe some hardcore baseball fans here who don't play can explain the allure.

Nascar..just a bunch of cars going in circles, sometimes there are crashes but that's not action, that's sad.

The NBA is more tolerable to me than baseball, atleast there's not all this standing around, for hockey to grow I think you need to get the kids playing and watching and wait it out. The NHL for the most part doesn't have a problem drawing at the gate, perhaps more needs to be done on TV to make it feel like you are there. I would like hockey to find a way for the view to pick their own camera angles to watch the game. On Dishnetwork college football games on TBS have about 8 channels where you can watch at different angles. I wish we could figure a way to incorporate this.

Having scrambling and interefernce on VERSUS doesn't help.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Having scrambling and interefernce on VERSUS doesn't help.

Is your point that Versus doesn't broadcast over-the-airwaves?