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NHL/hockey TV ratings 2024-25

Reaser said:
In the first round U.S. markets have co-exist regional broadcasts that cut into the national numbers. So when it's a Canadian team that's one (or two if CAN v CAN) less option(s) to not be watching the U.S. national broadcast. So it's more about how far they advance, but where it's really made up and why I'm always harping on "two country league" and think/wish Canadian numbers were more available/shared (even by the league) is that the numbers up north increase when a Canadian team is playing. And they increase significantly over U.S. v. U.S..

Stanley Cup Playoff numbers should really operate on "North American audience" but a long history, particularly from U.S. sports/sports business media, of ignoring that Canada exists and that it's a two country league. That there's national broadcast rights in both countries. They know they get more clicks/comment/article shares for blanket "NHL ratings are down" headlines and/or "[insert series does poor #]" (meaning solely in the U.S. which they never notate) so it wouldn't surprise me if that's coming for any of those potential games involving Canadian teams but it'll be usual uneducated nonsense, unless any given series does poor numbers on both sides of the border. Which is possible any given season with certain U.S. v. U.S. matchups but less likely when a CAN team is involved -- about worse you can get is the Jets getting 1.0M in CAN and a weak 250-350k in the U.S.. Of course that's only reported as 250-350k because that sells better than 1.3M actual average audience in the NHL footprint.
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Let's say Leafs v Canadians second round should draw decent now Jets v Canucks first round very likely not
 
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From my conversations, and I'll note it wasn't explicitly stated, but I got the impression that both U.S. rights holders will be counting the 4 Nations numbers in their "regular season average viewership." A pseudo-standard, we've seen it in the past with the ASG.

I'm not particularly in favor of that, don't like when the ASG is counted either, because what everyone interested wants to see is the actual regular season games average and obviously the general public that doesn't know any better assumes that's what the numbers reflect. That's not how the networks think, though. Similarly, we'll see the typical [poor avg viewership number] couple games unilaterally just not counted in their season average. Which I'm also on-record as being wholly against when it's been done in the past -- including last season.

Regardless, if it plays out like that and as of right now that's my assumption, when they post the season averages at the end of the regular season it'll look better than some are thinking.

Something that's stood out to me, is the floor, which the previous two seasons no games went below 150k, that had become/was becoming essentially the worst we'd see, one game that did 'really bad'. We've already seen four games below 150k this season.

And on below or sub-200k games. Last season there was 8 such games. Two seasons ago there was 13 games sub-200k. To-date, there's been 13 games this season below 200k, with of course some regular season broadcasts left to go.

A lot of that is the typical poor scheduling. Naturally all 13 games have been in late time slots, that'll happen but the poor scheduling had added to that number.

13 sub-200k games so far:
ESPN 9pmET: 1
ESPN 10pmET: 2
TNT 9pmET: 1
TNT 9:30pmET: 2
TNT 10pmET: 7

Kings and Utah are tied with the most, of 4 each. That's typical for the Kings as I've pointed out over the years. Utah, new team, hasn't translated to drawing well in national broadcasts. Where it gets to "bad scheduling" is next is the Panthers being in 3 of those games. An ETZ team in the late games. Including the insanely scheduled CTZ v. ETZ late game I've pointed out a few times where the Wild were blacked out locally.

Of the 13 least-viewed games so far this season, 4 have had an ETZ team in the late game. 3 have had a CTZ team in the late game. One was CTZ v. ETZ so 6 of the 13 games were CTZ/ETZ in the late game. 2 of those 13 were non-exclusive games, which again is a bad job of putting together the U.S. national broadcast schedule. Not a bad job (imo they should be shown) but just for the info, 3 of the 13 least-viewed games included a Canadian team.

With just minimal effort put into the national broadcast schedule, specifically in this case, the late games, you'd be looking more at half the amount of games under 200k to this point so far this season, rather than the 13 and potentially counting.
 
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-NHL on TNT avg viewership Sunday-

*Golden Knights-Red Wings: 405k
-TNT: 337k
--truTV: 68k

*Stars-Avalanche: 301k
-TNT: 255k
--truTV: 46k

*non-exclusive games
 
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(via @jheaps4)

NHL on ABC:

January:

Rangers-Capitals: 1.1M
Rangers-Blackhawks: 454k
Bruins - Panthers 1,05M


February:

Blackhawks-Panthers: 723k
Rangers-Bruins: 1.1M
Lightning-Red Wings: 934k
Golden Knights-Bruins: 1.27M
Capitals-Penguins 1.1M
Wild-Red Wings 944k

March:

Bruins-Penguins: 1.1M
Kraken-Flyers: 580k
Bruins-Lightning: 777k
Devils-Penguins: 604k


Cable:

October:

Blues-Kraken: 348k (ESPN)
Bruins-Panthers: 790k (ESPN, non-exclusive)
Blackhawks-Utah: 522k (ESPN)
Rangers-Penguins: 467k (TNT+truTV)
Avalanche-Golden Knights 315k (TNT+truTV)
Wild-Blues: 417k (ESPN)
Flyers-Oilers: 333k (ESPN)
Sabres-Penguins: 512k (TNT+truTV)
Bruins-Avalanche: 340k (TNT+truTV)
Capitals-Flyers: 477k (ESPN)
Avalanche-Kraken: 422k (ESPN)
Kings-Golden Knights: 245k (ESPN)
Flyers-Capitals: 410k (TNT+truTV)
Rangers-Capitals: 412k (ESPN)
Kings-Sharks: 186k (ESPN)
Golden Knights-Kings: 109k (TNT+truTV)

November:

Red Wings-Blackhawks: 411k (TNT+truTV)
Red Wings-Penguins: 354k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Kings-Avalanche 231k (TNT+truTV)
Hurricanes-Flyers: 237k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Predators-Kraken: 155k (TNT+truTV)
Capitals-Lightning: 268k (TNT)
Golden Knights-Avalanche: 207k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Penguins-Bruins: 483k (TNT+truTV)
Avalanche-Stars: 177k (TNT+truTV)

December:

Bruins-Blackhawks: 487k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Stars-Kings: 232k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Rangers-Sabres 478k (TNT+truTV)
Flyers-Red Wings 418k (TNT+truTV)
Panthers-Wild 161k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Blackhawks-Sabres: 245k (ESPN2)
Avalanche-Utah: 258k (ESPN2)
Stars-Blackhawks: 217k (ESPN)
Blues-Blackhawks: 920k (Winter Classic, TNT+truTV)

January:

Avalanche-Blackhawks 283k (TNT, non-exclusive)
Panthers - Utah 183k (TNT)
Red Wings-Panthers: 507k (ESPN)
Oilers-Avalanche 389k (ESPN)
Hurricanes-Sabres: 259k (TNT+truTV)
Oilers-Wild: 324k (TNT+truTV)
Panthers-Kings: 151k (TNT+truTV)
Golden Knights-Stars: 424k (ESPN)
Flyers-Devils: 253k (TNT+truTV)
Penguins-Utah: 138k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)

February:

Sharks-Kraken: 175k (ESPN)
Bruins-Rangers: 537k (TNT+truTV)
Oilers-Blackhawks: 217k (TNT+truTV)
Rangers-Penguins 560k (TNT+truTV)
Oilers-Capitals 318k (TNT+truTV)
Canucks-Kings: 159k (TNT+truTV)

March:

Leafs-Penguins: 326k (TNT+truTV)
Bruins-Wild: 457k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Blues-Stars: 383k (TNT+truTV)
Red Wings-Blue Jackets 1.6M (ESPN, Stadium Series)
Capitals-Rangers: 324k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Leafs-Golden Knights: 178k (TNT+truTV)
Sabres-Lightning: 390k (ESPN)
Sharks-Avalanche: 305k (ESPN)
Devils-Flyers: 263k (TNT+truTV)
Penguins-Wild: 350k TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Sabres-Red Wings: 290k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Ducks-Utah: 139k (TNT+truTV)
Utah-Oilers: 147k (ESPN)
Golden Knights-Red Wings: 405k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Stars-Avalanche: 301k (TNT+truTV, non-exclusive)
Avalanche-Leafs: 319k (TNT)
 
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@Coinneach, for your list, the Avalanche-Leafs game, and the Kraken-Wild game (when we get that #, wasn't on my list so have to wait until someone else gets it or I'll see it next week) those games were TNT only, no truTV simulcast.
 
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