NHL TV ratings 2022/2023

[BKIslandersFan]

This yr, we are barely averaging 2.6M..

We? Who's we?

 

[joelef]

I am left speechless now. I just watched around the horn, and not 1 mention of what could be the final game for the S. CUP tonight. you'd think at least a small preview of it, or mention that tkachuk is hurt, etc. Not one mention. Instead, they showed a College Baseball pop up that was misjudged.. These guys really don't give a crap about hockey.. And it's not like it's 2 canadian teams in the final. Unreal

I was just looking at last yrs sc final ratings. It averaged 4.59M and they said it was the 3rd lowest SC final on record. This yr, we are barely averaging 2.6M.. man, that is extremely embarassing. How can ppl be happy with this rating????No one in the US is watching this series.

Look at the ratings and nhl marketing…. There’s a reason why they don’t care

 

[Nicky Santoro]

Look at the ratings and nhl marketing…. There’s a reason why they don’t care

You're right. It's embarassing.. I wonder if this deciding game tonight with the cup in the bldg will even get 2M? It probably will, but not that much more..

I think the MLS final might beat us or come close for a final game. As much as that Eddygee guy makes my blood boil each time he comes into a thread just to mention MLS, he might not be wrong.. Maybe the MLS is as popular as the NHL, or will eventually surpass it one day. I've come to a conclusion that Americans really really hate our game. 2.5M SC final series avg is a joke.

Ever since BOS lost to fla in gm7, it was all downhill from there.. We needed BOS. they were a great story all yr and had they went to the Cup final, it would've been a diff story.

Now that this nightmare is over, i am so happy. Time to move on and forget about this 2 months of torture. Lets hope next yr's playoffs will have CHI, PHI, BOS, NYR, etc etc. and no more carolina, florida and hopefully no WIN, OTT, CALG or CAR..

Thank GOD hockey is now over. I suffered enough these last 2 months.

Enjoy the summer.. See u all next fall.

 

[joelef]

You're right. It's embarassing.. I wonder if this deciding game tonight with the cup in the bldg will even get 2M? It probably will, but not that much more..

I think the MLS final might beat us or come close for a final game. As much as that Eddygee guy makes my blood boil each time he comes into a thread just to mention MLS, he might not be wrong.. Maybe the MLS is as popular as the NHL, or will eventually surpass it one day. I've come to a conclusion that Americans really really hate our game. 2.5M SC final series avg is a joke.

Ever since BOS lost to fla in gm7, it was all downhill from there.. We needed BOS. they were a great story all yr and had they went to the Cup final, it would've been a diff story.

Now that this nightmare is over, i am so happy. Time to move on and forget about this 2 months of torture. Lets hope next yr's playoffs will have CHI, PHI, BOS, NYR, etc etc. and no more carolina, florida and hopefully no WIN, OTT, CALG or CAR..

Thank GOD hockey is now over. I suffered enough these last 2 months.

Enjoy the summer.. See u all next fall.

The nhl refuses to market there stars and this is what happens

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

A fun fact

 

[awfulwaffle]

The nhl refuses to market there stars and this is what happens

Ok, I'm just curious, what would your approach be? It's not like the NBA where your star player is on the court for 85% of the game. They are involved in EVERY play. Please help elaborate on what the NHL should be doing to market their stars to get more people engaged and watching.

 

[WaW]

Ok, I'm just curious, what would your approach be? It's not like the NBA where your star player is on the court for 85% of the game. They are involved in EVERY play. Please help elaborate on what the NHL should be doing to market their stars to get more people engaged and watching.

You're not wrong about this. I think the whole "league refuses to market its stars" is just the wrong discussion. What the league should be doing is it should be fixing the parts of the game that are fundamentally broken, and they should be trying to enhance the abilities for the star players to do the things that make star players exciting to watch.

The NFL for example understands this. They have similar problems the NHL has...the players have to wear helmets and never play more than half the game. So instead of "marketing the stars" like basketball can easily do, the NFL has adapted over the past couple of decades by continuing to make rule changes that favour throwing the ball and empowering the QB and the high speed skilled guys. Its angered some older fans and traditionalists, sure, but their TV numbers undoubtedly prove its the most fun to watch.

 

[oldunclehue]

You're not wrong about this. I think the whole "league refuses to market its stars" is just the wrong discussion. What the league should be doing is it should be fixing the parts of the game that are fundamentally broken, and they should be trying to enhance the abilities for the star players to do the things that make star players exciting to watch.

The NFL for example understands this. They have similar problems the NHL has...the players have to wear helmets and never play more than half the game. So instead of "marketing the stars" like basketball can easily do, the NFL has adapted over the past couple of decades by continuing to make rule changes that favour throwing the ball and empowering the QB and the high speed skilled guys. Its angered some older fans and traditionalists, sure, but their TV numbers undoubtedly prove its the most fun to watch.

The NHL has been evolving to try and make it better for the star players to be the focus, the speed, reffing, rule changes. But it isn't enough. I think the BOG and Bettman along with fans need to realize there is a ceiling as to how popular this sport can be. Does it take time to grow the game as the grass roots, yup it really does. Is that model working, it seems to be in most non-typical hockey markets. But it is also flailing in traditional markets, in many Canadian cities less and less kids are playing the sport and more are looking to cheaper year round alternatives like soccer.

We can't compete with the big american sports entrenched within their history....and that is ok.

 

[WaW]

The NHL has been evolving to try and make it better for the star players to be the focus, the speed, reffing, rule changes. But it isn't enough. I think the BOG and Bettman along with fans need to realize there is a ceiling as to how popular this sport can be. Does it take time to grow the game as the grass roots, yup it really does. Is that model working, it seems to be in most non-typical hockey markets. But it is also flailing in traditional markets, in many Canadian cities less and less kids are playing the sport and more are looking to cheaper year round alternatives like soccer.

We can't compete with the big american sports entrenched within their history....and that is ok.

I haven't really seen much of this. I know they change penalty rules and whatnot, but the refs are still too scared to call the game literally by the book anyways. Perhaps we have different views on what would constitute meaningful change here, which is okay.

For me, a meaningful change for example would be to modernize the wildly outdated 93 year old offside rule in order to end 3-4 man stacks at the blueline and cut out repetitive dump and chase hockey, instead empowering the quick puck carrying playmaker, who are typically the star players.

 

[joelef]

You're not wrong about this. I think the whole "league refuses to market its stars" is just the wrong discussion. What the league should be doing is it should be fixing the parts of the game that are fundamentally broken, and they should be trying to enhance the abilities for the star players to do the things that make star players exciting to watch.

The NFL for example understands this. They have similar problems the NHL has...the players have to wear helmets and never play more than half the game. So instead of "marketing the stars" like basketball can easily do, the NFL has adapted over the past couple of decades by continuing to make rule changes that favour throwing the ball and empowering the QB and the high speed skilled guys. Its angered some older fans and traditionalists, sure, but their TV numbers undoubtedly prove its the most fun to watch.

Tom Brady’s no other nfl players have been in commercial at the very least

 

[joelef]

Ok, I'm just curious, what would your approach be? It's not like the NBA where your star player is on the court for 85% of the game. They are involved in EVERY play. Please help elaborate on what the NHL should be doing to market their stars to get more people engaged and watching.

Well how at the very least getting Connor mcdavid on a espn show can’t even do that very minimum

 

[varsaku]

The NHL has been evolving to try and make it better for the star players to be the focus, the speed, reffing, rule changes. But it isn't enough. I think the BOG and Bettman along with fans need to realize there is a ceiling as to how popular this sport can be. Does it take time to grow the game as the grass roots, yup it really does. Is that model working, it seems to be in most non-typical hockey markets. But it is also flailing in traditional markets, in many Canadian cities less and less kids are playing the sport and more are looking to cheaper year round alternatives like soccer.

We can't compete with the big american sports entrenched within their history....and that is ok.

The NHL is doing nothing to grow the sport at the grass roots level other than just put a team in a new market and hope people get interested enough to try playing the sport. I feel the biggest mistake NHL made was not requiring teams having free to play youth academies like soccer. Yes, it would only help traditional markets in the short term but in the long run will allow more kids to play the game in nontraditional markets and grow the game.

 

[vegarover]

Kind of pathetic that ESPN 12 hours after Vegas wins the Stanley Cup has this on their homepage. You have to scroll down to find anything about the game/series.

 

[joelef]

Kind of pathetic that ESPN 12 hours after Vegas wins the Stanley Cup has this on their homepage. You have to scroll down to find anything about the game/series.

Again look at the ratings …. Of cites they don’t care

 

[Joe from Maine]

Look at the ratings and nhl marketing…. There’s a reason why they don’t care

ESPN's Pardon the Interruption had Steve Weeks on yesterday for several minutes to discuss game 5. He did a good job.

 

[awfulwaffle]

Well how at the very least getting Connor mcdavid on a espn show can’t even do that very minimum

What show? Are you looking for the daytime talk shows, or scott van pelt? When Scott is on after a game, they usually interview someone from that game itself right afterward. You need to elaborate more on what exactly you are looking for. I would think that having McDavid on a daytime show like PTI is more between ESPN and the agent of McDavid than anything the NHL can do really.......

Tom Brady’s no other nfl players have been in commercial at the very least

Do you mean no other NFL players are doing commercials? Having trouble understanding what you are saying, but if you are talking about marketing them through commercials:

Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott just to name a few that are still playing.

And again, that's between the player's agent and the company that's paying for their brand in the commercial.

 

[Reaser]

-Stanley Cup Final viewership-

Game 5 Panthers-Golden Knights: 2.721M

-By network-
TNT: 2.468M
truTV: 253k

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Well it's done let's hope for a better finals next year this one was dissapointing.

 

[Reaser]

Final Averages:

Stanley Cup Final: 2.634M (5 games)

Stanley Cup Playoffs: 1.214M (88 games)

Regular Season: 454k (112 games)

Combined: 788k (200 games)

 

[DaBadGuy7]

-Stanley Cup Final viewership-

Game 5 Panthers-Golden Knights: 2.721M

-By network-
TNT: 2.468M
truTV: 253k

Not bad, probably could’ve gotten to 3 million if it was a close game. Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch said both on Richard Deitsch’s Sports Media podcast and his own podcast that he believes NHL has some regret on giving TNT 3 SCF on this deal seeing how core cutting continues to shrink the cable audience. He thinks the next TV deal that all SCF games will be on OTA, which I agree with.

 

[4mats4]

Well it's done let's hope for a better finals next year this one was dissapointing.

My take, honestly, is that the networks just got unlucky this year.

Literal record breaking first round, record number of games over 1 million viewers, including 3 game 7s over 2 million, with 1 over 3 million (largest game of the playoffs) all while being non exclusive broadcasts. Bruins (massive fanbase), Rangers (massive fanbase and #1 TV market), Kings (#2 TV market) Avalanche (Defending champs) Lightning (3 time eastern conference champions) and the Wild (state of hockey) gone in round 1.

2 short series in the eastern conference in round 2 (eastern conference tends to draw bigger TV numbers) including an awful Devils-Canes series (4 blowouts). Knights-Oilers featuring a Canadian team and a team everybody hates that drew below 1 million some games. Only good series that round was Stars-Kraken which did well including a very good game 7

Conference finals saw a sweep in the east (including a 4OT game which was awesome but from a ratings standpoint was bad cause it ended so late in the east) and a 3-0 lead in the west with a blowout in game 6

And a finals between a small fanbase in the Panthers (they haven’t been given a chance to build a big fanbase since they’ve been awful for the majority of their existence) and a team everybody hates that wasn’t very competitive including a 5 goal blowout and a 6 goal blowout cup clinching game

From a pure ratings standpoint this playoffs was very unlucky. It will help grow fanbases in Vegas and Miami sure and that’s a big positive, but from a pure TV standpoint it was rough after round 1. I’m convinced that if we’re looking for purely ratings success, we can see incredible numbers given certain teams going deep and more series in rounds 2, 3 and 4 going to game 7 considering they’ll be exclusive broadcasts. Only 2 of 14 series have gone 7 in rounds 2, 3 and 4 this TV contract, both being in round 2

 

[Golden_Jet]

My take, honestly, is that the networks just got unlucky this year.

Literal record breaking first round, record number of games over 1 million viewers, including 3 game 7s over 2 million, with 1 over 3 million (largest game of the playoffs) all while being non exclusive broadcasts. Bruins (massive fanbase), Rangers (massive fanbase and #1 TV market), Kings (#2 TV market) Avalanche (Defending champs) Lightning (3 time eastern conference champions) and the Wild (state of hockey) gone in round 1.

2 short series in the eastern conference in round 2 (eastern conference tends to draw bigger TV numbers) including an awful Devils-Canes series (4 blowouts). Knights-Oilers featuring a Canadian team and a team everybody hates that drew below 1 million some games. Only good series that round was Stars-Kraken which did well including a very good game 7

Conference finals saw a sweep in the east (including a 4OT game which was awesome but from a ratings standpoint was bad cause it ended so late in the east) and a 3-0 lead in the west with a blowout in game 6

And a finals between a small fanbase in the Panthers (they haven’t been given a chance to build a big fanbase since they’ve been awful for the majority of their existence) and a team everybody hates that wasn’t very competitive including a 5 goal blowout and a 6 goal blowout cup clinching game

From a pure ratings standpoint this playoffs was very unlucky. It will help grow fanbases in Vegas and Miami sure and that’s a big positive, but from a pure TV standpoint it was rough after round 1. I’m convinced that if we’re looking for purely ratings success, we can see incredible numbers given certain teams going deep and more series in rounds 2, 3 and 4 going to game 7 considering they’ll be exclusive broadcasts. Only 2 of 14 series have gone 7 in rounds 2, 3 and 4 this TV contract, both being in round 2

I’m more interested in growing the game, that’s what everyone should want, so creating new fans in those markets is great. Don’t really care if they could’ve had better ratings with Rangers or another team.

 

[BeatenLikeRentedMule]

I bet a rerun of Matlock gets more viewers than this league.

 

[Reaser]

Couple random end of season 'stats':

59 games this season had over 1.0M avg viewership. 50 playoff and 9 regular season. Up from last season with 48 total, 45 playoff and 3 regular season.

The 200 combined regular season & playoff U.S. national telecasts (including non-exclusives) had 100 games that were over 600k avg viewership, ranging from 606k to 3.1M. And 100 games that were under 600k avg viewership, ranging from 150k to 595k.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]