NHL TV ratings 2021/22

[Kirk Van Houten]

Lightning-Avs opens at post-hiatus high, if below prior years

The Stanley Cup Final opened with the NHL’s largest audience since returning from hiatus, but comparisons to prior years are not as favorable.

Wednesday’s Lightning-Avalanche Stanley Cup Final Game 1 averaged a 2.2 rating and 4.2 million viewers on ABC, up 175% in ratings and 161% in viewership from Canadiens-Lightning on NBCSN last year (0.8, 1.61M) but down 24% and 20% respectively from Blues-Bruins on NBC on Memorial Day 2019, the previous year the postseason was conducted as normal (2.9, 5.25M). The game’s 6 share matched 2019.

Overall, Game 1 ranks a middle-of-the-road tenth out of the past 20 Cup Final openers dating back to 2002. (The last time ESPN/ABC aired the Stanley Cup Final, Game 1 of Flames-Lightning aired on ESPN and averaged 1.37 million.)

I'll take that last part as the most important. Ratings are good for now, must build for the future.

 

[varsaku]

Hmm...if I recall correctly, game 1 of the glamorous Warriors vs. Celtics recently drew onky 11.9 million or so for games 1 and 2 on ABC. Just only a bit more vs. the comparable World Series (supposedly a "dying",sport) games last fall with large Atlanta and Houston markets.

Yes, a bigger NBA audience of course vs. past two pandemic off-season finals, but far lower than most years in the past 15 plus years or so from what I read.

I think even the Warriors vs. Raptors finals on ABC with the Canadian market drawback drew over 13 million for game 1, I think.

I think San Francixco San Jose is the 6th or 7th lagest tv market, while Boston recently dropped to 10th but still big. (While Atlanta Thrashers territory jumped 3 spots in one year to 7th.) So two big NBA markets, both with sexy teams now and historically, disappointed according to several analysts.

NHL, granted a marque matchup also, only has medium markets. Denver I think is around 18th, Tampa 13th? Haven't checked lately.

So 11.9 NBA to 4.2 NHL is, I guess, decent for hockey.

Plus NHL has fewer American markets. Also, NBA has top ten tv markets in Houston and Atlanta, to boot, unlike the NHL. Plus an ABC pre-game show AND a Jimmy Kimmel NBA show as lead ins. NHL? And that constant marketing. NHL? None of that.

NBA has over 30 milllion Twitter folllowers, NHL less than 7 million and MLB 8.5 million, I think. Not sure about Facebook and Instagram.

So...wouldn't one simply expect the NBA to draw 25 to 40 million for each finals game given those advantages over the NHL? Maybe their 9 pm EST starts (8 pm on Sunday) can be blamed somewhat?

Conclusion: I'm surprised the NBA vs. NHL final so far is as "close" as it is! It'll likely drop for game 2, as it's a Saturday...and a summer three-day weekend in America: Juneteenth observed on Monday, and banks, libraries and post offices are closed. It began last year, I think.

This NBA finals were horrible and extremely one sided. It probably turned off a lot of casual fans from tuning into the NBA finals.

 

[S E P H]

Blackhawks, Rangers, and Bruins are just a few that would drive the ratings up. Tampa is one of the smaller East coast markets and Colorado itself is quite a small state in regards to population. I would like to see 7 million, but I don't think that happens even though I think Colorado is a solid hockey market when you consider it a western city in the middle of nowhere.

 

[46zone]

Blackhawks, Rangers, and Bruins are just a few that would drive the ratings up. Tampa is one of the smaller East coast markets and Colorado itself is quite a small state in regards to population. I would like to see 7 million, but I don't think that happens even though I think Colorado is a solid hockey market when you consider it a western city in the middle of nowhere.

Tampa is the 11th largest television market in the country, and the 5th largest market in the eastern conference.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I think the fact that arguably the two best teams are battling out is helping also. For example, who the hell would want to watch tampa vs montreal or tampa vs dallas in the past 2 years unless you were a fan of slaughterings or one of the two teams

 

[S E P H]

Tampa is the 11th largest television market in the country, and the 5th largest market in the eastern conference.

Just because it has population doesn't mean the hockey market is big.

 

[OG6ix]

Just because it has population doesn't mean the hockey

You could say the same for NYC

 

[S E P H]

You could say the same for NYC

Rags aren't as popular as the Yankees or when the Knicks are contenders, but they're actually seen as a legit team in a legitimate sport. NYC is a brilliant sports town, the state of Florida isn't. High ageing and migrate population.

Granted they happened in Covid, but look at the Lightning Cup parades versus Blackhawks parades.

 

[46zone]

Just because it has population doesn't mean the hockey market is big.

You previously said "Tampa is one of the smaller east coast markets", which is objectively false. Tampa has also had good local numbers over the past few seasons. The "hockey market" is highly dependent on casual fans jumping on the bandwagon during playoff runs, and having a large population helps with that.

 

[S E P H]

You previously said "Tampa is one of the smaller east coast markets", which is objectively false. Tampa has also had good local numbers over the past few seasons. The "hockey market" is highly dependent on casual fans jumping on the bandwagon during playoff runs, and having a large population helps with that.

Then the market should be able to do much better than just 4.2 million.

 

[46zone]

Then the market should be able to do much better than just 4.2 million.

Kings vs Devils game 1 in 2012 had 2.9 million viewers. Would you classify LA as "one of the smaller west coast markets"? 4.2 million for a game 1 is pretty much right in line with what we've seen over the years.

 

[S E P H]

Kings vs Devils game 1 in 2012 had 2.9 million viewers. Would you classify LA as "one of the smaller west coast markets"? 4.2 million for a game 1 is pretty much right in line with what we've seen over the years.

LA is a horrible hockey market for its size, way too many things to do in the city with great weather and if there is a sporting event to see, it's either basketball or baseball. Cali is predominately a baseball state and majority of the players come from either them or Florida.

It definitely is a small hockey market, even with the bandwagon potential. There is only a certain amount of bandwagoners that join every playoff run, you are conducting some fallacy that just because a city has 4 million people, 50% of them will randomly join the Kings bandwagon and it doesn't work that way. It takes multiple years of successful seasons to eventually get noticed by casual fans.

 

[4mats4]

Kings vs Devils game 1 in 2012 had 2.9 million viewers. Would you classify LA as "one of the smaller west coast markets"? 4.2 million for a game 1 is pretty much right in line with what we've seen over the years.

LA is a bad hockey market so I don’t think LA contributed as much as it should have for that series, however, the main reason the 2012 finals had poor viewership was because of the Devils. Nobody cares about the Devils in the NYC market even when they’re good, they don’t get bandwagoners like the Rangers and even the Islanders get. The Devils are arguably the 3rd most popular hockey team in NJ behind the Rangers and Flyers

 

[Bostonzamboni]

According to the Wikipedia list of the 2021-22 tv markets, Tampa is 12, Denver is 16.

For comparison, Boston is now10 after dropping a couple recently, and surpassed now by Atlanta's quick rise of three spots to 7.

Dallas is 5 but so close in households to overtaking Philadelphia at 4. And Dallas is a larger tv market than Houston which may surprise many, as isn't Houston's actual city population much higher (too lazy to check). Yes, boring stuff to most, but I am interested.

So yes, Tampa is not a small hamlet tv market like a Buffalo, Columbus or Las Vegas which are 30 to 40. It's bigger than Orlando and to my surprise, bigger than Miami. Someone mentioned Tampa at 11, but I noticed that was the 2017 ranking.

This NBA finals were horrible and extremely one sided. It probably turned off a lot of casual fans from tuning into the NBA finals.

 

[Nicky Santoro]

The NHL can't catch a freakin break. No more NBA, we have the stage all to ourselves and late 2nd, it's a blowout of 5-0.. ABC will be lucky to hit 2M this game on a SAT night.. No one is watching this crap anymore except ppl who live in Denver. Boring game.

This was the NHL's chance to shine and go 7 games and peak at 10M+ in gm7.. This thing better not end in a sweep.. The NHL can't catch a break.

 

[Joe from Maine]

Some descent NHL coverage this morning on ESPN. PK Subban was in the studio with a 15 minute segment on both Get Up and First Take. He did well. Even Steven A Smith had a prediction of the Avalanche in five games. Not great coverage but not bad. Certainly much better than before ESPN picked up the national rights.

 

[4mats4]

Some descent NHL coverage this morning on ESPN. PK Subban was in the studio with a 15 minute segment on both Get Up and First Take. He did well. Even Steven A Smith had a prediction of the Avalanche in five games. Not great coverage but not bad. Certainly much better than before ESPN picked up the national rights.

This is honestly all the NHL needs is ESPN to cover the NHL in segments like this regularly. Over time the hosts will take it more seriously but this type of coverage is fine

 

[OG6ix]

Some descent NHL coverage this morning on ESPN. PK Subban was in the studio with a 15 minute segment on both Get Up and First Take. He did well. Even Steven A Smith had a prediction of the Avalanche in five games. Not great coverage but not bad. Certainly much better than before ESPN picked up the national rights.

Yup!

 

[OG6ix]

More promotion across the channel today

 

[Puck possession wins]

Yup!

More promotion across the channel today

These are literally all the NHL needs from ESPN.

Just promote the game on the hot take shows that go viral (Get Up, First Take, This Just In) and hockey will thrive.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Charles Barkley on the intermission show

 

[Bostonzamboni]

But in future years, NHL will be battling NBA for coverage during the Final.

This year is a treasured exception.

It may not get as much coverage on the ESPN shows in future Finals when the NBA is about to end its conference finals.

 

[OG6ix]

But in future years, NHL will be battling NBA for coverage during the Final.

This year is a treasured exception.

It may not get as much coverage on the ESPN shows in future Finals when the NBA is about to end its conference finals.

This is probably somewhat true - I think it's still better than being on something like NBCSN.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

70

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: TAMPA BAY/COLORADO

ESPN

4:00 AM

120

0.05

127

Game 2 numbers including a 4 AM replay

 

[4mats4]

70

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: TAMPA BAY/COLORADO

ESPN

4:00 AM

120

0.05

127

Game 2 numbers including a 4 AM replay

I’m pretty sure the dip from game one can be associated with it being a blowout