2021 NHL TV ratings thread

[OG6ix]

The gist is similar key take away was it was the lowest rated year since NBC had rights, you can put lipstick on a pig so many ways or throw cheese on a turd sandwich so many ways its still a turd. It's PR spin 101: find a positive out of bad news and hope you can focus the customers on that positive. This isn't the merely mixed result headline. Most of us tracking this years numbers knew this would be the lowest rated year for sometime when the NBC numbers were down (main ratings driver) The main news was this was the lowest NBC rated season since NBC has done business with the league a "low first" similar to MLB's situation and as Paulsen stated here.

New ESPN-MLB deal includes very few games
"ESPN’s MLB deal effectively marks the end of regular weekday baseball on the network. Most of those weeknight games either co-existed with RSN coverage in participating markets or were blacked out entirely. Per SBJ, MLB is shopping around those weeknight rights and a deal with a digital media company could be announced in the coming weeks. In addition, Turner’s new deal includes a regular Tuesday night slate starting next season."

Point is as I said similar to MLB with ESPN there was a lot of P/R spin to mask bad info. This shouldn't be a revelation or worth debating further as it is what it is I was simply pointing out Olbermann's wit e.g ESPN's P/R spin replying to your post. There's no need to start this whole hurt pride back in forth we are all NHL fans here in a safe space discussing TV ratings. No need to name call "trolls" etc all though some deserve that name more than others from their past cherry picked comparison posting history I've seen. We are also all sports fans in the US/Canada (most of us) and also follow other US leagues closely. So there will be cross comparisons and points made when cross comparisons are made.

I agree but you have to keep an apples to apples comparisons. I am an MLS/Soccer fan and I even I can't see major growth in that league - granted they have some expansion franchises come in and create new fans sure - but I have seen that with the NHL in the past too and then they play bad. The growth I have saw with MLS were when they brought in Beckham/Older players with name value but that evaporated now. Franchises like TFC/Seattle/Atlanta/New LA franchise are having success but it's not NHL levels in terms of revenue. I'd be curious to see how the Kraken will impact the sounders as they became the default 3rd team Seattle right after the sonics left.

I remember Don Garber in the 2000s talk about slow and steady expansion and used to say other leagues (hinted at NHL many times) who expanded to quick; yet since that they have expanded by like 20 teams lol. The quality of play has been diluted in my opinion and it was never great to begin with. Ibrahimovic came out and said he is a Ferrari amongst Fiats while he was in the MLS. Countless European stars have said the quality is no good.

Until the MLS starts to attract real stars from europe in their prime the league is going to be nothing but a play toy for owners (some who want a second tenant in their football stadiums). I see the league as a fancy version of the USL

 

[S E P H]

Enough discussion about junior leagues like the MLS, how were the playoff numbers over the weekend?

 

[eddygee]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of spin here. To start with we are talking about tweet sent out by a independent third party, not the league or NBC.

Exclusive games were up 15%, but the overall average was dragged down by the abnormally high number of non-exclusive broadcasts... That's it, that's basically the full story regarding NHL viewership so far this season... Overall, per usual, NHL viewership was meh. If you want to argue this Austin Karp fella is trying to put positive spin on things go ahead, but in that case your just as guilty of "spin" as anyone else. Just look at your "wellactually..." post regarding MLS viewership from a few days ago, compared to the long established concern trolling when it comes to the NHL.

Look ok I have no long lol established concern trolling history only a cpl folks here even believe that line. So don't co sign this guy Coin, as no one truly believes I troll besides a few, they know I like MLS as well as NHL as I've stated that many times.

Coineach is the true the troll himself. I've told the story about Coin it's long but essentially I've posted here under a old account very infrequently mainly lurked and read for a while. Coin basically trolled other soccer sites I posted on. Posters got tired of his stick and started calling him out. It took me a while to figure out this was the same guy who also was posting on the soccer board I also posted on. Once I figured Daniel Czech on Big Soccer was CoinEach and the NHL TV Ratings guy on Twitter was CoinEach too, I started calling him out. He's been called out on Twitter for the same thing. We all know how he trolls MLS on here cherry picking numbers, but is quick to call people a troll like he called NextBigThing who I won't speak for. He shouldn't call anyone a troll because he knows what he does himself. He can trick a few of ya'll who don't know any better or don't care cause its a hockey site but not me. To his credit he's decreased his trolling since the pandemic as there hasn't been much troll material for him. Any way news to some here there are people who post here who aren't strictly just NHL Fans. As far as 3rd party that's valid but Austin Karp Sports Business Journal is reporting off the NBC press release which is official.

 

[eddygee]

One falls down and the rest crumble lol

Exactly

 

[eddygee]

Enough discussion about junior leagues like the MLS, how were the playoff numbers over the weekend?

Ok Junior team Tottenhnam fan your best player Harry Kane doesn't even wanna play for your team. I guess supporting T'ham is better than supporting the crappy Polish league. Now this is some good ole fashion smack talk.

As far as TV ratings keep up there are no numbers to report me and Kirk Van Houten have been discussing that. Hopefully some tomm but ShowBuzzDaily had said they were going to have ratings today so hopefully tomm?

 

[eddygee]

I agree but you have to keep an apples to apples comparisons. I am an MLS/Soccer fan and I even I can't see major growth in that league - granted they have some expansion franchises come in and create new fans sure - but I have seen that with the NHL in the past too and then they play bad. The growth I have saw with MLS were when they brought in Beckham/Older players with name value but that evaporated now. Franchises like TFC/Seattle/Atlanta/New LA franchise are having success but it's not NHL levels in terms of revenue. I'd be curious to see how the Kraken will impact the sounders as they became the default 3rd team Seattle right after the sonics left.

I remember Don Garber in the 2000s talk about slow and steady expansion and used to say other leagues (hinted at NHL many times) who expanded to quick; yet since that they have expanded by like 20 teams lol. The quality of play has been diluted in my opinion and it was never great to begin with. Ibrahimovic came out and said he is a Ferrari amongst Fiats while he was in the MLS. Countless European stars have said the quality is no good.

Until the MLS starts to attract real stars from europe in their prime the league is going to be nothing but a play toy for owners (some who want a second tenant in their football stadiums). I see the league as a fancy version of the USL

Good Points I agree there hasn't been a real star since Beckham but their has been growth. I think you have to look at the revenues differently if you are comparing to NHL it's just a different level NHL has the benefit of being 100+ yrs old it benefits from having established business relationships with sponsors and network partners. but if you look at the growth of MLS you gotta just look at MLS in its scope. It went from 200m in revenue to 1bil plus in revenue in 10 yrs. I think the stars come with the next TV deal. I just see ESPN signed La Liga to $175m yr with way worst ratings it's led some to believe that the deal could possibly reach $400m a year if ESPN is paying $175m yr for a league that has historically avg. 100k on US TV. I'm not also sure the Kraken become the default team in Seattle the Pacific NW Seattle/Portland is different than most US markets and the Sounders are established 40+ yrs. Colin Cowherd( from the area) has said many times how big that team is there.

Seattle Times Sports had to pull a poll with tens of thousands of votes from Twitter asking which team are you buying a jersey first from, the list was Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken or Others. Others won going away. They had to pull the poll down and apologize and repost it as local fans were complaining about the glaring slight to the Sounders. The Sounders ended up winning. More Anecdotal evidence of this is they have almost the same number of Twitter followers as the Mariners. I agree with the rest of your post will be interested to follow I think there will be heavy crossover support not a separation like you see in some sports fandom. So in short I wouldn't just assume the Kraken become default number two, no doubt older established sports people in board rooms might try to push it like that, the way like the Seattle Times Sports Twitter account did; but it's hardly a given. I don't think the two are in competition anyways different seasons. Sounders have a HUGE fan base, wish my MLS team was that successful at least my CAPS are up 1-0 BTW I don't no of the stars you speak of that said the league was no good. Lets be fair that's more of your opinion most Euro stars tell the papers back home the level and skill is better than what their home countries think. What you said is more in line with MLS pre 2010.

 

[OG6ix]

Good Points I agree there hasn't been a real star since Beckham but their has been growth. I think you have to look at the revenues differently if you are comparing to NHL it's just a different level NHL has the benefit of being 100+ yrs old it benefits from having established business relationships with sponsors and network partners. but if you look at the growth of MLS you gotta just look at MLS in its scope. It went from 200m in revenue to 1bil plus in revenue in 10 yrs. I think the stars come with the next TV deal. I just see ESPN signed La Liga to $175m yr with way worst ratings it's led some to believe that the deal could possibly reach $400m a year if ESPN is paying $175m yr for a league that has historically avg. 100k on US TV. I'm not also sure the Kraken become the default team in Seattle the Pacific NW Seattle/Portland is different than most US markets and the Sounders are established 40+ yrs. Colin Cowherd( from the area) has said many time hows big that team is there.

Seattle Times Sports had to pull a poll with tens of thousands of votes from Twitter asking which team are you buying a jersey first from, the list was Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken or Others. Others won going away. They had to pull the poll down and apologize and repost it as local fans were complaining about the glaring slight to the Sounders. The Sounders ended up winning. More Anecdotal evidence of this is they have almost the same number of Twitter followers as the Mariners. I agree with the rest of your post will be interested to follow I think there will be heavy crossover support not a separation like you see in some sports fandom. So in short I wouldn't just assume the Kraken become default number two, no doubt older established sports people in board rooms might try to push it like that way like the Seattle Times Sports Twitter account did but it's hardly a given, I don't think the two are in competition anyway different seasons. Sounders have a HUGE fan base, wish my MLS team was that succesfull at least my CAPS are up 1-0

I agree the Sounders do have a large fanbase when compared to other MLS fanbases. I still think this is a TBD in that market considering they never had a NHL team and their NBA team left. I am not saying that the sounders won't have their hardcores anymore - I am more wondering about the casual fans.

 

[eddygee]

I agree the Sounders do have a large fanbase when compared to other MLS fanbases. I still think this is a TBD in that market considering they never had a NHL team and their NBA team left. I am not saying that the sounders won't have their hardcores anymore - I am more wondering about the casual fans.

Judging by just anecdotal evidence many casual Sounder fans on message boards will be fans of both suggest a lot of crossover. The same happened with SeaHawk fans it seemed. The SeaHawk and Sounders marketing/ticket sales front offices where integrated up until a few yrs ago. So there is alot of overlap in fandom there. I just think Seattle is a great Sports town. NHL knocked it out of the park going there. I think it will be 2x as successful as Vegas if they win early it's a much bigger market. Next they just have to find a way to get into Houston or Atlanta and settle on a Canadian team as Canadians seem to be desperate for another team to support. I'm not sure if they would be happy with 34 teams but you can make it work. NHL could probably get $500m for a US team as I don't think another market is gonna pay like Seattle and then they can let the Canadian markets outbid each other and cash out around $700-800m expansion fee there and a total of around $1.3b

 

[Anisimovs AK]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of spin here. To start with we are talking about tweet sent out by a independent third party, not the league or NBC.

Exclusive games were up 15%, but the overall average was dragged down by the abnormally high number of non-exclusive broadcasts... That's it, that's basically the full story regarding NHL viewership so far this season... Overall, per usual, NHL viewership was meh. If you want to argue this Austin Karp fella is trying to put positive spin on things go ahead, but in that case you're just as guilty of "spin" as anyone else. Just look at your "wellactually..." post regarding MLS viewership from a few days ago, compared to the long established concern trolling when it comes to the NHL.

Speaking of spin, while ESPN IS lowering its rights fee to the MLB from $700million a year to $560 million a year, MLB media rights will still get a hefty raise from both FOX and Turner Sports increasing their rights fees.

Also, its common knowledge that sports that play 1 or 2 games a week get better ratings than sports that play 3-5 times a week, unless its the MLS cup though

 

[Anisimovs AK]

I go in depth on all most my post nothing new, You know as I've stated I'm a fan of both leagues. Nothing wrong with that, or what I pointed out. All were facts.

Everything he said was factual too, its just the facts didnt flatter the MLS, so you did the "well actually" thing you do everytime you read something "negative" about the MLS here

 

[eddygee]

Everything he said was factual too, its just the facts didnt flatter the MLS, so you did the "well actually" thing you do everytime you read something "negative" about the MLS here

Ok so there should be no problem then since we're both being factual.

 

[Anisimovs AK]

Ok so there should be no problem then since we're both being factual.

You are the only one typing out novel length posts to "refute" facts.


Its almost like there is a Business of Sports forum for all this off topic MLS bullshit, but here we are

 

[Anisimovs AK]

Ok so there should be no problem then since we're both being factual.

Besides your post regarding the MLB, NHL, and spin, yes. Everything you said was factual

 

[eddygee]

You are the only one typing out novel length posts to "refute" facts.


Its almost like there is a Business of Sports forum for all this off topic MLS bullshit, but here we are

Yup

 

[eddygee]

Sat Bruins vs Caps Gm 1 NBC: 2.281m

 

[OG6ix]

Sat Bruins vs Caps Gm 1 NBC: 2.281m

Higher than any MLS Cup rating ever ... I'm just messing around EddyGee

 

[eddygee]

Higher than any MLS Cup rating ever ... I'm just messing around EddyGee

Lol

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Stanley Cup opens with top first round game in three years

Saturday’s Bruins-Capitals Stanley Cup quarterfinal Game 1 averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.28 million viewers on NBC. In other action, Islanders-Penguins Game 1 drew a 0.8 and 1.41 million and Wild-Golden Knights a 0.8 and 1.40 million on NBC Sunday. NBCSN rounded out the opening weekend of play with a 0.44 and 742,000 for Lightning-Panthers Game 1

Numbers from the Playoffs weekend.

 

[eddygee]

Boom big Preakness numbers too hopefully this is one of the many signs of return of regular sports viewership.

 

[OG6ix]

Was this game exclusive or did the Regionals also have a stake like the games on NBCSN?

 

[eddygee]

Was this game exclusive or did the Regionals also have a stake like the games on NBCSN?

Playoffs on NBC are exclusive I believe so no outlier there but check with Fenway for certainty. The only other thing is the strong Preakness lead in. Had over 7 million which was the highest viewership since 2019 and NHL gets the highest since 2018. One thing I'll miss with NBC going to ABC and Turner are these lead ins and synergies of rights properties programming. I'm not sure if its possible for Turner to do NBA/NHL lead ins because of games running over I'm not really sure what kind of marquee properties off top of my head ABC has like NBC that can produce good synergy like NBC has done with Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes lead ins and such. It was a good run tho provided really big audience reach for NHL.

 

[Joe from Maine]

Was this game exclusive or did the Regionals also have a stake like the games on NBCSN?

The first rounds games are exclusive on NBC as already mentioned. All other games on NBCSN, USA network and CNBC are non exclusive in both markets.

The second round on are all exclusive to NBC. It probably translates to half of the Stanley Cup games being non exclusive versus exclusive because of the large amount of games in the first round.

 

[Fenway]

HNIC was the 19th most-watched show in English Canada in the last ratings period

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

So i just checked and showbuzzdaily site is back

 

[eddygee]

So i just checked and showbuzzdaily site is back

Good looks like the data is still only accurate as a week ago so hopefully the newer numbers filter thru in the morning.