All-Star Game Ratings on Versus

[Bobby Orr]

via Kukla:

The All-Star Game also achieved a higher rating (.7) than the average of last season’s Quarter-Finals (.3), Semi-Finals (.4) and Conference Finals (.6). Viewership among Men 18-34, Men 18-49, and Men 25-54 was also higher than the average of the Quarter, Semi, and Conference Finals games from last season.

The most lame duck game of the year (and one of the worst of its kind) does a better job at uniting NHL fans than the Conference finals? Uggh. We'll never see the death of that putrid game.

The article breaks the ratings down by individual markets:
http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/asg_ratings_on_versus/

Interestingly, the 3 teams that seem to get the most flak on the forums are:

Nashville
Pittsburgh
St. Louis

and all three had strong local ratings. (relative to other NHL cities)

Click to read more...

 

[D-Block]

Everything was a nice and dandy as I read until I saw the chart near the bottom.

All this means is the NHL needs to go back on a channel everyone actually watches and have. Like NBC. Look at the views they pull when they were hosted on big channels.

Not everyone has Versus, most people don't even know what "Versus" is.

Simple problem to fix. Just put the games on big name national channels.

 

[Jazz]

.....
The most lame duck game of the year (and one of the worst of its kind) does a better job at uniting NHL fans than the Conference finals? Uggh. We'll never see the death of that putrid game.....

Problem I think is that many American NHL fans are mostly fans of their home city's teams first before the rest of the league. I'm not sure many Philly fans would be interested in a network Det/Col game.

This is more of a result of the NHL's bad marketing over the years in not being able to market stars from other teams that people would want to see.....

 

[Nalyd Psycho]

Simple problem to fix. Just put the games on big name national channels.

Not that simple, someone has to want to broadcast the games...

 

[EbencoyE]

Problem I think is that many American NHL fans are mostly fans of their home city's teams first before the rest of the league. I'm not sure many Philly fans would be interested in a network Det/Col game.

This is more of a result of the NHL's bad marketing over the years in not being able to market stars from other teams that people would want to see.....

Exactly.

People who criticize the NHL's ratings don't seem to understand that. Only the fans of the teams involved watch or care. This is why local ratings are good - and national ratings are bad. The All-Star game is something all NHL fans can enjoy though.

That's why last year's playoffs were a nightmare for the NHL. Look at the conference final teams: Buffalo and Carolina = the two smallest American markets. Edmonton = Canadian. Anaheim = large market, but secondary team behind the Kings. The often forgotten little brother if you will.

With only the locals from those small markets tuning in - its no wonder NHL ratings are so poor.

 

[boredmale]

That's why last year's playoffs were a nightmare for the NHL. Look at the conference final teams: Buffalo and Carolina = the two smallest American markets. Edmonton = Canadian. Anaheim = large market, but secondary team behind the Kings. The often forgotten little brother if you will.

it was funny i remember a thread last playoffs of what would be the leagues worst nigtmare matchup in the playoffs, carolina vs edmonton had to be near the bottom of the list

 

[Randall Graves*]

Look at the chart, almost a quarter of what the last ASG got..

 

[Epsilon]

Everything was a nice and dandy as I read until I saw the chart near the bottom.

All this means is the NHL needs to go back on a channel everyone actually watches and have. Like NBC. Look at the views they pull when they were hosted on big channels.

Not everyone has Versus, most people don't even know what "Versus" is.

Simple problem to fix. Just put the games on big name national channels.

Perhaps you should educate yourself on the difference between broadcast (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) networks and cable networks.