NHL/hockey TV ratings 2024-25

[NextBigThing]

Chicago down 79% is embarrassing. New York down 49% for the Rangers and 28% for the Islanders is also brutal. This league is in trouble. Bettman better pray he doesn't get a Winnipeg/Ottawa final this year.

 

[Reaser]

Chicago down 79% is embarrassing. New York down 49% for the Rangers and 28% for the Islanders is also brutal.

All three of those involved carriage issues.

Regardless, shared for information but per usual, % up/down without actual numbers (real information) doesn't tell much of a story. Like the Ducks being "up" so much. Such an increase is obviously because the HH # from last season was so bad. An obvious conclusion to make. But we see % up or down for 10 of 25 U.S. teams. Not a lot of substance there. To make any state-of-the-league declarations based off such limited & contextually irrelevant numbers would be absurd.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

All three of those involved carriage issues.

Regardless, shared for information but per usual, % up/down without actual numbers (real information) doesn't tell much of a story. Like the Ducks being "up" so much. Such an increase is obviously because the HH # from last season was so bad. An obvious conclusion to make. But we see % up or down for 10 of 25 U.S. teams. Not a lot of substance there. To make any state-of-the-league declarations based off such limited & contextually irrelevant numbers would be absurd.

More importantly those three teams weren’t good this season, easiest thing to look at when looking at local numbers. Some outliers where it doesn’t explain why numbers are up or down. But usually numbers are based on team performance.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Chicago down 79% is embarrassing.

Not really. Borderline everyone knew that Hawks ratings would plummet once it was clear that they weren’t going to be on Xfinity. For all intents and purposes, the Hawks just aren’t on TV anymore for the vast majority of the area.

The embarrassing thing is the Wirtzes being surprised (or pretending to be surprised) at the ratings drop and sticking with the dead end that is the Reinsdorfs as broadcast partners.

 

[Reaser]

-SBJ Regular Season Viewership-

NHL regular season averaged 445k in the U.S..

Disney (ABC/ESPN) avg: 584k (918k w/4NFO included)

WBD (TNT/truTV) avg: 320k (364k w/4 Nations included)

With 4 Nations included the NHL would be up 24% YoY

NHL regular-season viewership lowest yet for TNT, ESPN under current deal as marquee U.S. teams underperform

The NHL saw viewership drop 12% across its national TV partners in the U.S. during the 2024-25 regular season as high-profile, big-market teams underperformed, particularly in the back-half of the season once hockey got clear of football.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

 

[DaBadGuy7]

Sunday’s first round Stanley Cup playoff tripleheader averaged 806,000 viewers on the ESPN networks, down 22% from last year’s quadrupleheader (1.04M). That is despite the games taking place on Easter Sunday, when there is greater out-of-home viewing.

Devils-Hurricanes led the way with 880,000 viewers on ESPN, down 34% from Capitals-Rangers in the same window last season (1.34M). Senators-Maple Leafs followed with 794,000 on ESPN2, down 27% from the year-ago pairing of Colorado and Winnipeg (1.09M).

Rounding out the tripleheader, Wild-Golden Knights averaged 735,000 — down 8% from Predators-Canucks a year ago.

 

[Reaser]

-Stanley Cup Playoffs avg viewership Saturday-

TNT/truTV Blues-Jets: 810k
TNT/truTV Avalanche-Stars: 981k

-Stanley Cup Playoffs avg viewership Sunday-

ESPN Devils-Hurricanes: 880k
espn2 Senators-Maple Leafs: 794k
ESPN Wild-Golden Knights: 735k

 

[Anisimovs AK]

All three of those involved carriage issues.

Regardless, shared for information but per usual, % up/down without actual numbers (real information) doesn't tell much of a story. Like the Ducks being "up" so much. Such an increase is obviously because the HH # from last season was so bad. An obvious conclusion to make. But we see % up or down for 10 of 25 U.S. teams. Not a lot of substance there. To make any state-of-the-league declarations based off such limited & contextually irrelevant numbers would be absurd.

Some napkin math tells me that while the Ducks are up 5k homes, being up 75 percent would mean they are up from roughly 6k.

Being up is good, but being that low to begin with is concerning (asterisk being we dont know how many people stream their games)

 

[Reaser]

-Stanley Cup Playoffs avg viewership Monday-

ESPN Canadiens-Capitals: 901k
espn2 Blues-Jets: 372k
ESPN Avalanche-Stars: 661k
espn2 Oilers-Kings: 323k

 

[Reaser]

 

[DaBadGuy7]

 

[Reaser]

-Stanley Cup Playoffs avg viewership Sunday-

ESPN Wild-Golden Knights: 735k

Seems like only a few ever care about this (accuracy) & media/leagues don't and since they're 'official' ... but if there's interest I can do this for relevant games ... MIN-VGK started on espn2 obviously, it had an avg viewership of 574k on espn2. As quote, 735k during the portion broadcast on ESPN.

The true full game avg viewership (ESPN/espn2) of MIN-VGK is 709k

 

[varsaku]

This was a given considering none of the big market teams made it in.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

-Stanley Cup Playoffs avg viewership Monday-

ESPN Canadiens-Capitals: 901k
espn2 Blues-Jets: 372k
ESPN Avalanche-Stars: 661k
espn2 Oilers-Kings: 323k

Fully expected bad numbers for Oilers v Kings for yet another season. Intrigued about number for an 11PM ET game last night.

 

[Reaser]

Roughly 3.4M "North American" audience for Sens-Leafs Game 1:

 

[Reaser]

Roughly 3.4M "North American" audience for Sens-Leafs Game 1:

Game 1 on Saturday Blues-Jets had an average minute audience of 1.344M across SN/CBC.

Meaning roughly 2.2M average viewers across USA/CAN for Game 1.