puck57
Registered User
- Dec 21, 2004
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I had not seen anything and was just wondering if anyone had seen what the ratings were for NBC this past Sat. for the first weekend of games they are showing? Seen anything on how they went?
greater than 0.0 less than 1.0 is my guess...
I'd bet on closer to the 0.0.
Americans don't watch much TV sports other than the home team in any sport but football and they sure aren't going to reverse that trend with hockey. Add to that the lack of celebrities, the lack of seeing guys act like jackarses, and the lack of "controversy," like a guy arguing with his coach or teammates, and the average American isn't interested. Team sports for the sheer sport of it don't sell in the US. It's not its fault, but hockey needs to accept that and move on. If it ever changes itself to get that American, I'll be profoundly disappointed.
Excellent post.
The Holy Grail of a national audience is wrong, IMHO. The NHL needs strong local support and viewership to survive, not national viewership.
This is not U.S.-specific, either.
I think the Vancouver ratings for CBC hockey games will be higher when Vancouver is playing than, say, when Calgary is. (Many 'Nucks fans will watch, of course, just in hopes of seeing Calgary lose, but that's a different topic). If there's a non-playoff game between Nashville and Tampa on NBC (not to pick on either team), can every non-Nashville and non-Tampa fan on these boards honestly say that they would stay home Saturday night to watch it? And I'm talking about posters who don't have kids, by the way.
If a die hard hockey fan in Vancouver isn't going to watch a Preds-Lightning tilt, why are we expecting a casual fan living in Portland to tune in?
Non-playoff baseball thrives on local market coverage. National Football gets excellent national ratings because it's on roughly one day a week, with the Monday Night game being an Event. But Football is America's number one sport, as evidenced by the rabid devotion to college ball as well. Take away betting and football pools, however, and see if the national ratings hold for "non-marquee" teams.
Sundays in winter are also the best possible days of the week to have football on. The plays are cut up, you don't have to stay glued to the screen, and you can just glance over, catch a play, and then get another taco.
I was at brunch on Sunday when my favourite NFL team, the Seahawks, were playing. I was able to see each scoring play while simultaneously making sure my son didn't eat a Dora doll, maintain an intelligent conversation with a friend, keep my wife from drinking all the cooking wine, and making certain my daughter didn't shave a baby's head.
Hockey is something you need to pay attention to in order to get the most out of it, and you have to care enough to want to pay attention. The guy in Portland would rather watch football, and that's perfectly acceptable.
NHL fans have to get over this obsession with national ratings and acceptance. It makes Americans sound like Canadians, and Torontonians sound like Vancouverites.
If I go to a bowling forum, can I expect to see new threads pop up all the time about getting better ratings than hockey, or do you suppose they just talk about...well, whatever bowling fans talk about?
Nice post but I was only looking for the ratings numbers not a whole thesis on hockey vs other sports -especially the genius that is Sunday football. Don't take it personally- I was just curious to see if NBC will be able to do anything this season with their presentation to grow viewership. Thanks anyways.
NHL ON NBC: The 1.1/2 (RAT/SHR) overnight for the season debut of “The NHL on NBC†marks a 20% decline from a 1.5/3 last season
-Via Kuklaskorner.com via SportsBusinessJournal:
Yep..so they were down. What else is new.
Via Kuklaskorner.com via SportsBusinessJournal:
Yep..so they were down. What else is new.
In fairness, was there any overlap with the NFL playoffs?
Nascar starts in 3 weeks or so.
The ratings are also odd because they did regional games
Yea there would have been overlap because the hockey games started at 2pm and the football game started at 4pm- I believe I have the times right.
I had not seen anything and was just wondering if anyone had seen what the ratings were for NBC this past Sat. for the first weekend of games they are showing? Seen anything on how they went?
The Blues have been playing pretty well though lately.
The less cynical among us saw it as a nice gesture on the part of new ownership to try and win back alienated fans by creating a fun, family-friendly atmosphere.Also, you gotta love how in order to show casual fans that lots of people come to NHL games, they offered free food in St. Louis for the first 2 periods.
The less cynical among us saw it as a nice gesture on the part of new ownership to try and win back alienated fans by creating a fun, family-friendly atmosphere.
Reality can be less kind. They did it to prevent the arena being 2/3 empty.
So a lot more people showed up because they are too poor to afford food outside of a hockey arena where they paid out the ass for tickets anyway?
***? When did I say anything about people being too poor to afford food? I'm saying the owners didn't do it to be generous. They did it so that they would not be embarrassed on national TV with an empty arena. It reflects poorly on the franchise to see many empty seats. I have no idea how you intrepted it as me taking a shot at the fans financial situation.