2018-19 NHL TV ratings

[Fenway]

​

NBC is going all in with Boston now. Bruins/Columbus on the mothership twice including the coveted slot after the Kentucky Derby.

 

[Fenway]

Not necessarily true.

NHL finished 2nd in prime time on NBC in the key 18-49 demo advertisers care about. They had double the audience of ABC. And trailed CBS .6 to .4 mostly because CBS ran a movie that is an Easter holiday tradition that night.

The Stanley Cup final wins many nights these past few season as well, going by memory.

Look at the numbers again

Adults in the coveted 18-49 age group are NOT watching broadcast TV.

 

[Coinneach]

Impressive

 

[Jets4Life]

Raptors vs Leafs (head to head):

 

[Fenway]

Rogers is looking at massive red ink

brioux.tv | TV News & Reviews

Look at what Rogers just lost: Sunday’s afternoon Game 6 between Toronto and Boston drew an overnight, estimated 2,019,000 viewers on Sportsnet National and, simultaneously, 1,700,000 on CBC. That’s over 3.7 million viewers. Rogers keeps all that ad revenue spread over two networks. No other Stanley Cup game over the next three rounds will come anywhere close to that total. Had the Leafs advanced, you could have likely added another million viewers per game — maybe two million in the latter rounds

Rogers still has many years left on its $5.2 billion, 12-year, exclusive NHL rights contract. At this point, they have to be wondering: a) will the Leafs ever get past the first round of the playoffs and b) will there even be cable TV six years from now?

Other results Sunday: Sportsnet National drew 900,000 with their evening game between San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators. Perhaps more encouraging is the fact that, same night, The Toronto Raptors drew close to a million — an estimated 977,000 — in their third victory over Orlando Magic in the NBA playoffs. Over on Sportsnet One+, the Blue Jays batted 420,000 vs. the Oakland A’s.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Look at the numbers again.

Just did. What I said was correct.

The NHL doubled the ratings of CBS and FOX in the key demo. It also beat CBS’ “48 Hours” head-to-head. Hockey game was already over for a large chunk of the 10-11 hour.

The poster claimed NHL would get smashed by any prime time broadcast show. That’s not necessarily true, especially in the only demo advertisers care about (younger than 49).

 

[46zone]

 

[killer1980]

Don't think there are too many people shedding a tear for Rogers, except of course, all those poor bastards that get laid off because of the boneheaded decisions that the Rogers execs have been making. They finally did get rid of the suit most responsible. Time to clean house at the Rogers media division. It was the major reason for Rogers recent earnings miss.

 

[Coinneach]

crazy number

 

[eddygee]

Don't think there are too many people shedding a tear for Rogers, except of course, all those poor bastards that get laid off because of the boneheaded decisions that the Rogers execs have been making. They finally did get rid of the suit most responsible. Time to clean house at the Rogers media division. It was the major reason for Rogers recent earnings miss.

So what will happen way down the road when the Canadian TV deal is up? Will another Canadian broadcaster pay as much again if Rogers is really bleeding money on the deal?
Finally how would any possible decline in future Canadian Revenue affect the upcoming CBA. I have vague knowledge of the escalator/escrow feature in the current deal and how it works.

 

[sctvman]

 

[Coinneach]

Leafs's Game 6 was more watched than Game 7....strange.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Amateur question: does the popularization and normalization of streaming in that last six years take a bite out of that number at all?

A certain active subreddit has hundreds of thousands of subscribers itself - which wouldn't include people who don't have a reddit, don't subscribe but still use it as a resource...has there been any surveying done to account for this?

 

[pigpen65]

Would have to assume the deletion of physicality from the sport would play a large part in any decreases in viewership.

 

[sctvman]

Some more ratings data here. Providence 8.9, Boston 8.1 for Bruins/Leafs Game 6. 6.8 in Nashville for Stars-Preds Game 5. 6.7 in DC, 6.5 in Raleigh for Canes-Caps game 5.

https://www.tvb.org/Portals/0/media...wk30/TVB_VidLytics_Report_2018-19_wk30_p3.pdf

And last night’s Canes-Caps Game 7 was the MOST-WATCHED first round game on record. 1.75 million viewers just on NBCSN. Peaked at 2.522 million at the end of the first OT. There are years Cup Finals games didn’t draw that well.

2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS DELIVER MOST-WATCHED FIRST ROUND IN 7 YEARS

 

[Jonas1235]

I dont think nbcsn needs the big American teams. They are doing great.

NBC channel has huge problems. Nobody wants afternoon hockey and theres nothing special about the NBC game. They need a Don Cherry or an intermission with candid roundtables discussion or something. It's so bland currently.

 

[killer1980]

Cord cutting is an obvious factor but I'm afraid the quality of the Rogers broadcast is a major contributing factor. Enough complaints about Don Cherry, the broadcast team and production, even on this board, has been enough IMO to dramatically affect the ratings. The media division is a major drag on Rogers profitability. Also, the savvy internet user knows of the alternatives and how to access them. A catastrophic downhill slide since the 3 geniuses made the deal 5 years ago and put this almost unwatchable package together. .

 

[Coinneach]

Overall, the complete first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 778,000 viewers across NBC Sports’ TV and digital platforms, up 2% from last year (769K), up 5% from 2017 (743K), and the highest average since 2012 (936K).

On cable, first round games averaged 673,000 viewers (including streaming), up 18% from last year (572K) and the highest average in a quarter-century (1994: 702K).

Canes-Caps Game 7 hits high; first round best on cable since 1994

 

[Coinneach]

Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 15 (Wednesday):

CAROLINA/WASHINGTON 1,6M (non-exclusive)

 

[Yopo]

Cord cutting is an obvious factor but I'm afraid the quality of the Rogers broadcast is a major contributing factor. Enough complaints about Don Cherry, the broadcast team and production, even on this board, has been enough IMO to dramatically affect the ratings. The media division is a major drag on Rogers profitability. Also, the savvy internet user knows of the alternatives and how to access them. A catastrophic downhill slide since the 3 geniuses made the deal 5 years ago and put this almost unwatchable package together. .

I have been thinking this for a while and now I want to askt: what is wrong with the Rogers' NHL product? As a European, it sounds almost impossible that NHL is 'unwatchable' in Canada. I mean, we see nothing else but the game. We stay up until 1 am 0r wake up at 5 only to see the NHL logo with the text 'The game will begin shortly'. Then finally, 30 minutes later, the puck drops, and we get to see anything at all. Then commercial brakes start to come and again, we are watching the NHL logo on the screen without any sound or highlights or anything. Same thing happens during intermissions. It really makes you think whether the games are worth watching or not.

Of course I get that it is not worth making an excellent broadcast for Europeans because we are so few who watch them at night and every country has their own TV contracts. However, based on this, it is difficult to believe that people who are into hockey would not want to watch NHL on Rogers because they ruined it. I saw a couple of Maple Leafs game last week that aired on CBC (which is SN broadcast I think?). In addition to basic European NHL broadcast, it offered ads and Don Cherry talking about how to defend with their sticks, which might be a little frustrating in the long term. However, it is far better than a complete silence and the NHL logo.

 

[Jason66]

NBC got screwed on having Boston playing a Canadian team and then a bunch of small market teams being the games on the broadcast network.

Boston-Washington would be good for them. Boston/Washington vs Columbus/NYI would be good for them. The west could be good for them but probably not until the conference finals and that strongly depends on the market and thew ability for a bandwagon to develop there.

The Maple Leafs always draw decent numbers in the U.S

 

[Coinneach]

 

[TheTotalPackage]

So what will happen way down the road when the Canadian TV deal is up? Will another Canadian broadcaster pay as much again if Rogers is really bleeding money on the deal?

I think the best bet, and what should have happened with this deal, is that at least two networks (Rogers and Bell...CBC would have been the third with this current one) partner up so they each handle a bunch of games. Not a huge cash outlay as it would be going alone (as Rogers is finding out), gives viewers some variety, and it'd also keep things fresh between both partners trying to maintain and exceed a certain level to better the other.

From the outset, Rogers promised something like 500+ games a year to be watched. And they held that end of the bargain for the first couple years. You could flip it to CBC, CityTV, Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360, and you'd get four different games on each, some even involving strictly American teams. It's like you were in hockey Heaven, and you didn't have to subscribe to a package to get your hockey fill. Now, three of those channels will show the same game (generally the Leafs), and the other would have a Habs game let's say. They are picking up a bunch of feeds for playoff games (won't blame them too much for that). You can see along the way that they have cut back on things.

 

[46zone]

Impressive since they were up against the NFL Draft as well as Nuggets/Spurs

 

[46zone]