How big is Olympic ice hockey in Europe?

[holyprime]

If you compare the tv-ratings, it comes after the World Cup and even after the "Euro" (the Championship, not the currency). Obviously that depends also on the success of the national teams.

For instance, in Switzerland, alpine skiing events (the big ones like Lauberhorn/Kitzbühl, the WM/Olympics) usually are among the highest ratings. However, a final like at the WHC easily surpasses them (it had the best tv-ratings for the entire 2013 at 51,4%).

Still, nothing comes close to football (Word Cup usually has over 60% in almost all participating european countries).

 

[Human]

tv-ratings for the Olympic hockey tournament are through the roof all across Europe. even in more southern countries...

 

[ziggo66]

tv-ratings for the Olympic hockey tournament are through the roof all across Europe. even in more southern countries...

Keep telling yourself that. In Germany, which is a rather important TV market in Europe, if not to say the most important one, Olympic hockey has really good TV ratings for being hockey. But biathlon, bob sleighing etc. all draw far more people.
It's tough to find hard numbers for hockey, because it simply never is among the most watched sports. But I found one very interesting bit of news: The 2010 gold medal game between Canada and the USA, which was by far the most hyped event of the whole 2010 Olympics, was watched by only 4.04 million people in Germany (at night, mind you). That's a great number for hockey, but to put it into perspective: Even the 50km cross country race on the same day was watched by more people (5.46 million) and the highest rated events of the 2010 Olympics drew 9 to 10 million viewers.
Oh, and basically no one cares about cross country racing in Germany...

 

[Urbanskog]

Keep telling yourself that. In Germany, which is a rather important TV market in Europe, if not to say the most important one, Olympic hockey has really good TV ratings for being hockey. But biathlon, bob sleighing etc. all draw far more people.
It's tough to find hard numbers for hockey, because it simply never is among the most watched sports. But I found one very interesting bit of news: The 2010 gold medal game between Canada and the USA, which was by far the most hyped event of the whole 2010 Olympics, was watched by only 4.04 million people in Germany (at night, mind you). That's a great number for hockey, but to put it into perspective: Even the 50km cross country race on the same day was watched by more people (5.46 million) and the highest rated events of the 2010 Olympics drew 9 to 10 million viewers.
Oh, and basically no one cares about cross country racing in Germany...

Gee, less people will watch a match played at night? Who would have thought!

 

[nvn]

Almost nobody watches ice hockey in Italy. Even curling had more viewers.

 

[Human]

Keep telling yourself that. In Germany, which is a rather important TV market in Europe, if not to say the most important one, Olympic hockey has really good TV ratings for being hockey. But biathlon, bob sleighing etc. all draw far more people.
It's tough to find hard numbers for hockey, because it simply never is among the most watched sports. But I found one very interesting bit of news: The 2010 gold medal game between Canada and the USA, which was by far the most hyped event of the whole 2010 Olympics, was watched by only 4.04 million people in Germany (at night, mind you). That's a great number for hockey, but to put it into perspective: Even the 50km cross country race on the same day was watched by more people (5.46 million) and the highest rated events of the 2010 Olympics drew 9 to 10 million viewers.
Oh, and basically no one cares about cross country racing in Germany...

Germany is a curious case. if you watch winter sports, like biathlon, nordic skiing, ski-jumping and all this kind of niche sports, the fans in the attendance are mostly german. what I'm saying is that the germans watch everything...

 

[ViD]

I would say Olympic hockey is on par with soccer World Cup in Russia.

 

[Fragmuffin]

In Croatia, it was for a long time the only way you could catch any kind of ice hockey on TV... Usually the olympic ice hockey tourney was overshadowed by alpine skiing, but it always had it's followers even among the non hockey fans.

 

[Jablkon]

Heh, I found info that live broadcast from player's arrival from Nagano was watched by 4,6 mil people (almost half of the nation). Of course that does not include people on the streets...

 

[Cruor]

Speaking of trends, I have the feeling the WHC's popularity has been waning in Sweden the past two decades. I'm not sure if we were spoiled with success in the early 90's or if it's that Sundin & Co retired. I don't really have any scientific evidence to back it up but for reference, 70 000 people showed up to celebrate the 1998 gold. People almost got killed when the first pair of jerseys were thrown out resulting in the rest of the players stopping the tradition.

In 2013, 20 000 people turned up in a pretty luke-warm celebration.

EDIT: Ignore this, I was sure the OP mentioned WHC-popularity as well. But I would say even the OG doesn't really carry the same feverish insane 'oomph' it once did.

 

[ziggo66]

Germany is a curious case. if you watch winter sports, like biathlon, nordic skiing, ski-jumping and all this kind of niche sports, the fans in the attendance are mostly german. what I'm saying is that the germans watch everything...

Yeah, I think it is because we seem to develop strong herd mentalities with everything. Someone wins a biathlon race and becomes world class, we watch. Same thing with a lot of other sports. It's just that it hasn't happened in hockey, yet. Even the success in the 2010 WHC didn't help, which almost certainly has to do with the ineptness of the Germany hockey federation, but that's another story.

@Urbanskog: No kidding! But there were A LOT of other events at night that drew way better ratings.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Speaking of trends, I have the feeling the WHC's popularity has been waning in Sweden the past two decades. I'm not sure if we were spoiled with success in the early 90's or if it's that Sundin & Co retired. I don't really have any scientific evidence to back it up but for reference, 70 000 people showed up to celebrate the 1998 gold. People almost got killed when the first pair of jerseys were thrown out resulting in the rest of the players stopping the tradition.

In 2013, 20 000 people turned up in a pretty luke-warm celebration.

EDIT: Ignore this, I was sure the OP mentioned WHC-popularity as well. But I would say even the OG doesn't really carry the same feverish insane 'oomph' it once did.

Maybe its partly becouse the internet and digital TV have given people so many options nowadays while back in the days we had three TV channels at best so the cake had fewer slices.

 

[Phil McKraken]

Oh sorry, I meant the 1994 FIFA World Cup when I was talking about the semifinals, clearly my mistake. Sweden won the gold medal for hockey, and I was wondering if it gotten attention similar to that.

When Sweden won bronze in 94 the streets looked like this, it's a huge thing:

An Olympic win gets a lot of attention too but it's not quite on that level.

 

[Urbanskog]

@Urbanskog: No kidding! But there were A LOT of other events at night that drew way better ratings.

Still, I think that 5 million viewers for hockey in the middle of night is a fantastic number.

 

[chupanibre]

Almost nobody watches ice hockey in Italy. Even curling had more viewers.

Pretty much this...

 

[ForumNamePending]

When Sweden won bronze in 94 the streets looked like this, it's a huge thing:

An Olympic win gets a lot of attention too but it's not quite on that level.

Given the sheer scope of the WC and the novelty of making a deep run (outside of the small handful of countries that have dominated the tournament it's pretty much a once every few generations accomplishment for even the strongest '2nd tier' nations) I think even in Canada making a WC semi (lulz) would be looked at every bit as favourably, if not more so, and generate at least as much excitement as any accomplishment in hockey... Not that I'm ever going to live long enough to be proven right or wrong on this.

 

[Mynameismark*]

Freestyle skiing, Bobsleigh, Snowboarding, Skeleton, Short track, Curling, yeah, you must be SO PROUD of having gold medals in all these magnificent sports! Congratulations to you

My point is, hockey is huge in Canada, and it is just as huge in Europe. But, there are lots of other huge sports in Europe.

In Canada, hockey is the only thing that matters, but that does not mean it isn't a huge thing in other countries.

what is sweden good at? Canada excels in certain sports...sweden takes part.

 

[Mynameismark*]

Almost nobody watches ice hockey in Italy. Even curling had more viewers.

Not enough diving and embellishing for them.

 

[Atas2000]

what is sweden good at? Canada excels in certain sports...sweden takes part.

Let me guess... curling.

I will take Sweden winning both men and women cross country skiing relays in Sochi over bunches of gold medals for "sports" like curling and snowboard-circus.

Especially the winter Olympics become more and more of a circus act with more "sports" added every time, but that doen't mean true sports fans take it seriously.

And Sweden does pretty well in those real sports that are really a treat to watch as actual sports. I don't remember Canada doing well anywhere outside hockey and speed skating.

 

[Mynameismark*]

Let me guess... curling.

I will take Sweden winning both men and women cross country skiing relays in Sochi over bunches of gold medals for "sports" like curling and snowboard-circus.

Especially the winter Olympics become more and more of a circus act with more "sports" added every time, but that doen't mean true sports fans take it seriously.

And Sweden does pretty well in those real sports that are really a treat to watch as actual sports. I don't remember Canada doing well anywhere outside hockey and speed skating.

Canada owns the winter olympics. If you take winter events, Sweden does well in Hockey(not as good as Canada) but comes nowhere close in anything else. Aside from skiing.

Speed skating is not a "meh" sport.

Then you take the summer olympics..and Canada still beats sweden. At least recently now that we are starting to pump a bit more funding into our summer sports.

 

[Elvs]

Canada owns the winter olympics. If you take winter events, Sweden does well in Hockey(not as good as Canada) but comes nowhere close in anything else. Aside from skiing.

Speed skating is not a "meh" sport.

Then you take the summer olympics..and Canada still beats sweden. At least recently now that we are starting to pump a bit more funding into our summer sports.

Canada has a population over 35 million people, Sweden has less than 10 million. Sweden had 106 competitors in nine sports in Sochi. Canada had 224 competitors in 14 sports. Not really a fair comparison.

85% of Sweden's population lives in southern Sweden. Conditions for them to become good at cross country skiing, alpine skiing, biathlon, snowboarding, free style skiing ect aren't great.

I live in the very north, the conditions for developing skiiers are good here. But I don't even know where to find a bobsleigh track or speed skating track. Aside from my work as a sports reporter, I have never met anyone competing in a winter olympic sport besides ice hockey and cross country skiing. During the winter most people play handball or floorball. Soccer teams also begin their offseason training around christmas.

 

[aphyro]

It is close. Some people like to say that soccer is bigger in Sweden than hockey is, but i think its about equal and it just depends on which fanbase you're asking as they are not very much the same.
Soccer have the advantage that its international tournaments are played during the summer so that a great outdoor atmosphere can be arranged and random party people can be drawn into it. That said, i believe i remember that the registered viewers were somewhat higher for soccer in the 2006(2010?) world cup than in the olympics, besides the Olympic final that drew the largest crowd of all Swedens games in the two.

Haha you must be kidding me?

http://www.dn.se/sport/sporthandelserna-med-flest-tv-tittare-2014/

And that was when Sweden didetn play

1) Fotbolls-VM, final Tyskland–Argentina, 13 juli: 2.810.000 tittare, TV4.
2) OS, herrarnas längdstafett, 16 februari: 2.352.000, TV3.
3) OS, herrarnas hockeyfinal Sverige–Kanada, 23 februari: 2.323.000, TV3.
4) Vasaloppet, 2 mars: 2.128.000, SVT1.
5) Fotbolls-VM, semifinal Holland–Argentina, 9 juli: 1.751.000, SVT1.
6) OS, invigningen, 7 februari: 1.749.000, TV3.
7) Idrottsgalan, 13 januari: 1.722.000, SVT1.
8) Fotbolls-VM, semifinal Brasilien–Tyskland, 8 juli: 1.722. 000, TV4.
9) Fotbolls-VM, åttondelsfinal Brasilien–Chile, 28 juni: 1.713.000, SVT2.
10) Fotbolls-VM, Brasilien–Mexiko, 17 juni: 1.577.000, TV4.
11) Fotbolls-VM, Spanien–Chile, 18 juni: 1.573.000, TV4.
12) Fotbolls-VM, bronsmatch Brasilien–Holland, 12 juli: 1.571.000, SVT1.
13) Junior-VM i hockey, final Sverige–Finland, 5 januari: 1.564.000, SVT2.
14) OS, damernas längdstafett, 15 februari: 1.561.000, TV3.
15) OS, damernas 30 km längd, 22 februari: 1.554.000, TV3.
16) Fotbolls-VM, premiären Brasilien–Kroatien, 12 juni: 1.533.000, SVT1.
17) OS, herrarnas skiathlon längd, 9 februari: 1.529.000, TV3.
18) Fotbolls-VM, åttondelsfinal Holland–Mexiko, 29 juni: 1.520.000, TV4.

For you to say that hockey is equal to football here in Sweden.

Canada owns the winter olympics. If you take winter events, Sweden does well in Hockey(not as good as Canada) but comes nowhere close in anything else. Aside from skiing.

Speed skating is not a "meh" sport.

Then you take the summer olympics..and Canada still beats sweden. At least recently now that we are starting to pump a bit more funding into our summer sports.

And Sweden beats Canada in the only sport's thats matter tho the WORLD Football

 

[Urbanskog]

And Sweden beats Canada in the only sport's thats matter tho the WORLD Football

Yeah, sure... what are you doing on a hockey forum?

 

[aphyro]

Yeah, sure... what are you doing on a hockey forum?

Really?

I like hockey but i like Football more, and to win WC in Football is harder to win than winning Olympic games in Hockey

 

[Urbanskog]

and to win WC in Football is harder to win than winning Olympic games in Hockey

Thanks for the newsflash!