Do you guys think the NHL will get the same TV money like the NFL?

3074326

Registered User
Apr 9, 2009
11,687
11,241
USA
Only way the NHL catches the NFL is if the NFL fails somehow.

The Super Bowl had 113 million viewers. Sunday Night Football averaged almost 20 million viewers, Monday Night Football almost 12 million.

The NHL had 1.6 million viewers for game 1 of the SCF. Negotiating power isn't even remotely the same.

It's like... a highlight of my day to meet and talk NHL with a fellow fan. Everyone I meet and know loves the NFL.
 

JPeeper

R.I.P. Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau
Jan 4, 2015
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Opening week the NFL averaged over 21+ million viewers per game.

The NHL averages around 550k per game (depending on the team). There are other factors such as more games played in the NHL, etc. but it's not even close.
 
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ItWasJustified

Registered User
Jan 1, 2015
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What's funny? From a viewship perspective, the poster is absolulely right.
If by viewship perspective you are referring to as a viewer being bored out of your mind and bombarded with ads, I guess it's the best sport to watch if you hate watching real sports.
 

joelef

Registered User
Nov 22, 2011
2,062
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Bettman was hired to get the NHL a lucrative US TV deal.

Do you guys think the NHL will ever get NFL-like TV deal?

What are the pros and cons from this perspective?
A wnba game beat out an nhl playoff game and Caitlyn Clark is more popular then any of your big stars. They can’t even beat out the wnba but think that they can get nfl money? Can I get that of those drugs.
 

CanadasTeam99

Registered User
Jul 22, 2024
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Never in a million years. I don't understand why people can't just enjoy hockey. There are more than enough teams and they make good revenue. Players make good money. They will always come and go.

Young kids in the states (and even in Canada now) are all into hip hop culture and NBA. NFL too.
 
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Honour Over Glory

Sully-Quinn: Idiots Squared
Jan 30, 2012
79,242
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Bettman was hired to get the NHL a lucrative US TV deal.

Do you guys think the NHL will ever get NFL-like TV deal?

What are the pros and cons from this perspective?
Lol absolutely not, at best they could maybe get somewhere sort of close to the NBA, sort of. They're barely pulling ahead of the MLB on average viewership during the season. When it comes to playoffs viewership, the NHL is last among the big 4 leagues.

This is where that show on Amazon could have made the NHL more compelling instead of a boring, definitely not full access, sort of PR stunt type of show for some players while throwing in one actual in depth story about an injured Captain.

To think the NHL is going to jump the NBA in TV ratings to the NFL is quite simply comical in its absurdity.

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Here's the average viewership per league and the NHL is basically battling it out for 3rd with the MLB and for the World Series vs the Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL gets destroyed by the MLB.

The NHL had a massive boost in ratings this year in the Finals mostly because of better US coverage with ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC again, but that hype is also entirely misleading. The reason it's hailed as such is because of how piss poor the Finals was in 2023, to put it into perspective, total viewership for the Bolts vs Avs series was 27.61m, Panthers vs VGK was 13.169m and the Panthers vs Oilers jumped up just a little over the 2022 Finals at 29.159m.

Why? - The Panthers vs VGK series was on TNT/TBS. The 2022 & 2024 Finals series was on ESPN+/ABC, you can see how massive of a dip it is when you don't get the right TV rights.

There's not enough consistency, but it also shows the better the coverage in the US, the bigger the numbers are. This is where Bettman has failed severely. The NHL's issues with ESPN and vice versa was not great for the NHL, ESPN wasn't affected much by it at all.
 

Honour Over Glory

Sully-Quinn: Idiots Squared
Jan 30, 2012
79,242
44,236
No. There are way too much actual sport in hockey. TV companies can't show ads every second minute during a NHL broadcast.

View attachment 909950


Lmao.
Outside of the interactive CGI ads they show on TV for the boards, ice, and behind the net, helmet ads on jerseys and helmets, oh and literally TV Timeouts - which absolutely ruin momentum. It's one of the most amateurish things the NHL does in comparison to the NBA, NFL, and MLB.
 

Strangle

Registered User
May 4, 2009
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6,783
I think the reason for the changes to sport betting and all of the ads reminds me of exactly why the NFL gets such viewing numbers.

If you think the NBA and the NFL are popular because of the sport, I guess that’s partly true. But they are as popular as they are due to sports betting.

So with the NHL now, I think betting will increase their TV numbers substantially
 

John Mandalorian

2022 Avs: The First Dance
Nov 29, 2018
11,525
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Not NFL like but a more realistic goal is to not be as reliant on gate revenue. The more successful leagues have a larger percentage of revenue from tv contracts.
 

Golden_Jet

Registered User
Sep 21, 2005
25,476
13,053
Here's the average viewership per league and the NHL is basically battling it out for 3rd with the MLB and for the World Series vs the Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL gets destroyed by the MLB.
It’s not average viewership per league, it’s US viewership only it says.
 

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