Fueled by a big increase on ESPN, the NHL regular season was the most-watched in eight years — and the most-watched on cable in 30.
NHL regular season games averaged 504,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT, up 8% from last year and the most-watched season since 2015-16 on NBC and NBCSN (505K). ESPN was the driving force behind the increase, as its average viewership increased 25% to 486,000. TNT was up 1% to 363,000 and ABC was actually down 8% to 934,000.
The cable average of 410,000 viewers is the highest for any NHL season in 30 years — since 1993-94 (474K) — surpassing the previous high of 392,000 for the lockout-shortened 2013 season on NBCSN. (As with any multi-year high of that sort, keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not tracked prior to 2020.)
While ABC finished down for the season, the network still accounted for four of the season’s top five audiences. The February 18 Rangers-Islanders Stadium Series game on ABC finished as the most-watched with a 0.8 rating and 1.57 million viewers, followed by Blackhawks-Penguins on ESPN Opening Night — Connor Bedard’s debut — at a 0.8 and 1.43 million.
TNT’s top game was the Golden Knights-Kraken Winter Classic (1.10M), which ranked just seventh for the season — not only the lowest ranking ever for the game, but the first time that it has not finished as the top game of the season in which it was played.
The NHL is on a roll.
A couple of thoughts on the NHL numbers. First off, it is good to see an increase in viewership. I dont think the streaming numbers that werent accounted for will increase by much.
The # of games increased last season across the board. Especially on ABC. It was great to see doubleheaders on ABC, and even a few tripleheaders, which was unheard of for hockey on broadcast tv.
But I was disappointed to see not one game on opening weekend of Stanley Cup playoff games was on broadcast tv. I understand ABC has their NBA commitment. Sunday is not happening. Or Saturday prime time. But, ABC could have put a game on early Saturday afternoon. Just to show some commitment to the sport. Yes, ESPN and TBS did a great job with their coverage over the weekend. But broadcast still means something in sports. To not have 1 game on broadcast is a bad look.
Second, I do think the NHL has to move the winter classic out of the New Years slot. I know this year they are moving it to New Years Eve, December 31 at a 5pm et time slot. Terrible. When the Winter Classic started, college football was in the middle of the BCS. New Years Day bowl games were meaningless. The Winter Classic took advantage of this and got some very good numbers for hockey. Now, with the new expanded playoffs, New Years Day is more important than ever for college football. I think going forward, the Winter Classic should be taken place the Sunday of the bye week for the Super Bowl. Scrap the All-Star weekend. Put the All-star game on mid-week. Use this Sunday platform for the Winter Classic. People are looking for something to watch that off week before the Super Bowl. Put it on at 4pm et on that Sunday. Would get very good numbers. Better going up against the NBA, College basketball, than college football.
All-Star game gets north of 1M viewers, can’t see them parting ways with that. One slot that I think should be considered by NHL and especially NBA is Christmas Eve. Like Easter, it is a much different ratings day now in the out-of-home era.
That explains that. Thanks!
Long comment but a legitimate question at the end that I’d love to hear your thoughts on.
So to get ABC avg at 934k you have to include ESPN+ numbers in that. On linear-only ABC avg 927k. Same with ESPN, linear 482k but including the ESPN+ numbers the avg is 486k.
Meanwhile, TNT avg of 363k is their linear avg, seemingly excluding the Heritage Classic on TBS and also excluding any max streaming #’s.
So that’d be a bit of an inconsistency.
But the real issue is including ESPN+ numbers to boost ABC (and select ESPN) linear numbers, while not using ESPN+/hulu exclusive games, as obviously that’d kill the average. So it becomes convenient, streaming only “counts” when it can boost linear numbers but doesn’t count streaming-only because those numbers would hurt the average.
Same with cable average of 410k, that is actually cable + simulstreamed numbers and excluding Heritage Classic and potentially other games because I’m not sure how there’s a 9k jump from the 401k the NHL did on linear U.S. cable to 410k. Then, while noting OOH, it’s not noted that streaming (ESPN+) numbers have been included to boost current numbers. Then it’s compared to past linear-only cable numbers.
Seems like in the past SMW used their only NHL numbers? Obviously this time around using the NHL PR (and ESPN PR) numbers, which is fine …
… but my question is do you find it disingenuous for the streaming numbers to be used that way? A convenient boost to linear numbers but excluding the 50 streaming-only ESPN+/hulu exclusive game numbers. If ESPN+ numbers are going to be used it seems like it’d have to be a use-them-all (include exclusive games / kill avg) or not at all (give true picture of linear numbers instead of boosted by streaming #’s never seen in isolation, just “trust us” added-on streaming numbers to boost linear #’s.)
You bring up an interesting point, as I do believe that ESPN+ viewership is included in the linear Nielsen figures for ESPN/ABC games. I don’t think it’s a particularly dishonest approach. If the game is originating on linear television and runs the same ads as on linear television, the Nielsen figure should include viewership no matter where it is viewed. At that point, ESPN+ is really no different than ESPN3 is for ABC’s other sports programming. Perhaps the exclusive ESPN+ games should be tracked, but we all know the networks are not looking for people to know just how many people are using these streaming services.
I will add that while I do use numbers from the league/networks, I also calculated these figures separately on my own and came up with the same exact figure for ABC’s games.
You are also correct that the TNT average excludes the Heritage Classic and (I believe) the Red Wings-Panthers game that was added to the schedule at the last second due to a postponement. ABC figures exclude the “Big City Greens” simulcast on Disney/Disney XD for Penguins-Bruins on March 9.
Thanks, Jon! That’s why you’re the best. I have a ton of follow-up questions but you have better things to do, so I’ll keep it to one. Just ABC if you’d indulge me:
I’ve seen multiple times on “X” (twitter) in recent years NHL on ABC Nielsen number posted (by you or others) and then ESPN PR (or an individual from ESPN research) will post a slightly higher number. Led me to believe that was ESPN+ streaming numbers being added-on. Different numbers: what’s in your daily ratings v. what was coming from ESPN PR/reps.
I’d like to see where the #’s are off on ABC (from public/on-site verse what you have for the 934k average.) Using the #’s on-site for the 19 ABC games, in order, obviously:
954k
709k
901k
823k
759k
1.132M
1.588M
779k
957k
847k
637k
997k (1.161M including Disney/XD)
798k
836k
883k
1.218M
877k
584k
1.188M
Including Disney/XD I’d get an average of 927k. Excluding Disney/XD I’d get 918k. But it’s 934k excluding Disney/XD, so presumably something is missing?
Yes — Nielsen averages are weighted by telecast duration. So without being weighted it’s 918K, but once you weight the games it’s 934K. The big factor is that the most-watched game on ABC all season, Rangers-Islanders, was extra-long at 224 minutes.