Hockey Ratings a "Monster"

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Sunday night’s exciting game between the United States team and Canada was seen by 8.2 million viewers, a bigger audience than any NHL game on American television in 37 years. The game beat last year’s final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which attracted what was then a 36-year high of 8 million on NBC.http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/a-huge-night-for-olympic-hockey/

Still waiting for Canadian numbers. A staggering 15 million is the estimate here:
http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/772652--viewership-gold-canada-u-s-audience-could-average-15-million

[gargamel]

That was just the preliminary game. I expect the gold medal game's ratings to be huge, although the 3pm Eastern start hurt it somewhat.

[Table 5]

8.2 Million seems really low to me (especially when you consider that some nothing show on ABC, Brothers and Sisters, had 7.9M). There was a lot of excitement for this game down here, and you usually never get that. Everyone I know was watching the thing...hell, I was in a bar packed with probably 200 people all there for the event.

I guess it just goes to show that even thoguh they were great numbers for hockey, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that much.

edit: oops, just noticed gargamels post. That makes a big difference.

[mykalberta]

Oops, yah that was prelim game. Not gold medal game.

[gargamel]

The gold medal game was on NBC and got a 17.6 rating, which is somewhere around 20 million viewers.

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/hockey-night-in-america-gold-medal-game.html

[VladtheImpaler]

Oops, yah that was prelim game. Not gold medal game.

And the prelim was on MSNBC.

[Acey]

The article is dated February 22. Last night's game is expected to have over 20 million viewers. TV ratings for primetime come out at about 9:30 our time this morning, numbers for the rest of the day later still.

[sureLoss]

According to John Buccigross of ESPN:
http://www.twitter.com/Buccigross
NBC earned a 17.6 overnight Nielsen rating for Sunday's Canada-U.S. Gold Medal men's hockey game.

Sunday's game drew a higher overnight rating than every World Series game since 2004

AND every NBA Finals telecast since 1998, and every NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four game since at least '98. And every Saved by the bell

[mykalberta]

Wow.

Something tells me Betman wishes the Winter Olympics were in North America every year.

Also keep in mind that NBC is the 3rd or 4th rated network (non olympics) currently among the big 3+1 networks.

To put the numbers in perspective, Sunday's game drew a higher overnight rating than every World Series game since 2004 (including every game of Yankees/Phillies last year), every NBA Finals telecast since 1998, and every NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four game since at least '98.

Excluding the NFL, the 17.6 overnight for the game is the second-highest of the year for any sporting event, behind only the Texas/Alabama BCS National Championship Game in January (18.2).

[Acey]

Yup that's the household rating which is a pretty good estimate of how big it was. Official numbers from Nielsen later today.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

That was just the preliminary game. I expect the gold medal game's ratings to be huge, although the 3pm Eastern start hurt it somewhat.

:bag:

[wooohooo]

How do they measure this because a lot of people go to bars/pubs and have a lot of people over at their houses watching these games. Hell, half of Vancouver was outside watching the game on those big tv's.

[Acey]

How do they measure this because a lot of people go to bars/pubs and have a lot of people over at their houses watching these games. Hell, half of Vancouver was outside watching the game on those big tv's.
None of that is accounted for. This is the US numbers were talking about anyway, where there would have been much less gathering of people. It's basically a sample of about 25,000 American TV households in various markets.

[getbak]

Did anyone watch the NBC broadcast? Did they do anything to promote the fact that they show NHL games every Sunday afternoon?

[tripin_billie]

Did anyone watch the NBC broadcast? Did they do anything to promote the fact that they show NHL games every Sunday afternoon?

Lots of NHL ads. This and the Winter Classic are really starting to build momentum for hockey.

[corporatejay]

None of that is accounted for. This is the US numbers were talking about anyway, where there would have been much less gathering of people. It's basically a sample of about 25,000 American TV households in various markets.

They do in Canada now, if you go in this thread

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=79357


Calgaryrocks talks about how now in Canada they have people wearing belts that receive signals or something. This is the reason there are so many records being broken this year, because they are accounting for bars etc...

[Acey]

Yes sir. Not as of yet for Nielsen, however.

[valo403]

None of that is accounted for. This is the US numbers were talking about anyway, where there would have been much less gathering of people. It's basically a sample of about 25,000 American TV households in various markets.

I can't speak for the rest of the US, but in NYC (which, granted, is a place where people tend to watch sports at bars) the bars were jammed. I was at a place sponsored by the Canadian Society of New York that was at least 100 people over fire code. I literally could not take my hands out of my pockets at one point. All of the other bars on the block were packed with Canadian overflow, and American friends of mine were at a couple other places that were filled up. The game was a big deal down here, it's on the front page of every paper I've seen.

[tripin_billie]

I can't speak for the rest of the US, but in NYC (which, granted, is a place where people tend to watch sports at bars) the bars were jammed. I was at a place sponsored by the Canadian Society of New York that was at least 100 people over fire code. I literally could not take my hands out of my pockets at one point. All of the other bars on the block were packed with Canadian overflow, and American friends of mine were at a couple other places that were filled up. The game was a big deal down here, it's on the front page of every paper I've seen.

I tried going to that bar for the game last Sunday and it was way too packed, so I went to the ESPN zone in Times Square, which was great because my wife and I got recliners and there was a pretty even split between Canadian and American fans.

Americans were definitely taking notice of hockey these Olympics.

[Netskot]

I can't believe just how far off those are from Superbowl numbers when this game was 10x more exciting.

Unreal.

[afc wimbledon]

Lots of NHL ads. This and the Winter Classic are really starting to build momentum for hockey.

Don't worry, somehow Betman will be able to squander it.

[Acey]

In the US this will have about 1/5 the viewers of the Super Bowl (which broke the record and hit almost 107 million viewers this year). The game yesterday was close to 25 million viewers... you say it's unreal but that's pretty good. In the States the Super Bowl is much more than a football game, probably half of the people watch it just because it's a party, an excuse to eat, and the commercials. Obviously not the case for this game since NBC had no commercials during the periods. Hockey fans should be pretty happy with the number of Americans that watched this.

[robocop]

well at the very least, 2/3 of all Canadians watched it live, the only people who missed it were working, blind or bedridden.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Or overseas, on a bus, on a hockey roadtrip in Scotland

[MelBridgeman]

Don't worry, somehow Betman will be able to squander it.

If Bettman squanders anything it is because he got permission for the board of governors to squander....not sure why this doesn't sink in

[Azure]

I can't believe just how far off those are from Superbowl numbers when this game was 10x more exciting.

Unreal.

Superbowl is pretty damn exciting too.

[Kaesar]

16.6mil avg, 26.5mil watched part of it.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=312025

I guess you have to hate hockey a lot to be in that 20%.

[pewpew]

16.6 million viewers in Canada
27.6 million viewers in the USA

[Canada 02]

Don't worry, somehow Betman will be able to squander it.actually, with these numbers and the $160M at the gate, you can see why Bettman and the owners might want to play hardball on Sochi, 2014

Since it is about growing revenues, I would think the NHLPA would want a cut as well

[burn_this_city]

16.6mil avg, 26.5mil watched part of it.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=312025

I guess you have to hate hockey a lot to be in that 20%.

Just to add.. These numbers are strictly in Canada. Something like 80% of the nation watched a portion of the game!

[hwy19man]

Great ratings as it does beat the 2002 gold medal game that was on the CBC.

[afc wimbledon]

If Bettman squanders anything it is because he got permission for the board of governors to squander....not sure why this doesn't sink in

I think we can all agree the board hired the idiot, but it doesn't alter the fact that he's an idiot.

[afc wimbledon]

actually, with these numbers and the $160M at the gate, you can see why Bettman and the owners might want to play hardball on Sochi, 2014

Since it is about growing revenues, I would think the NHLPA would want a cut as well

Early to mid morning games in europe mean the viewership will likely be lousy compared to Vancouver, the IOC will keep their cash, if the NHL and NHLPA don't want to play the IOC won't care, it will be a promotional loss to the league not to the games, actually the ratings in europe might be better if there are no NHL players because the european teams all have more of a chance of winning.

Who bothers to watch olympic basketball when you know who's going to win.

[valo403]

Early to mid morning games in europe mean the viewership will likely be lousy compared to Vancouver, the IOC will keep their cash, if the NHL and NHLPA don't want to play the IOC won't care, it will be a promotional loss to the league not to the games, actually the ratings in europe might be better if there are no NHL players because the european teams all have more of a chance of winning.

Who bothers to watch olympic basketball when you know who's going to win.

I'm confused, on the one hand you're arguing that the timing would result in lousy viewership, while on the other you're arguing that not participating would be a loss to the league. Which one is it? A tournament sparsely watched likely doesn't outweigh the negative impacts that a condensed schedule and 2 week break has on the NHL. Not to mention the lingering spat with the KHL and the Russians over transfer rules.

[Azure]

Pretty amazing viewership.

In the US that would be something like 250 million people watching at one point.

[Hemi-Cuda]

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/01/usa-vs-canada-gold-medal-hockey-most-watched-game-in-30-years-with-27-6-million/43413

“We’ve been fortunate to have a front-row seat to observe a nation of fans that appreciates winter sports, is proud of their winter sport heritage and celebrates success – no matter which country wins – so it was only fitting yesterday when Sidney Crosby scored the goal to give Canadians the gold that meant so much to this country,” said Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. “‘O Canada’ will never be the same.”

[afc wimbledon]

I'm confused, on the one hand you're arguing that the timing would result in lousy viewership, while on the other you're arguing that not participating would be a loss to the league. Which one is it? A tournament sparsely watched likely doesn't outweigh the negative impacts that a condensed schedule and 2 week break has on the NHL. Not to mention the lingering spat with the KHL and the Russians over transfer rules.

About a third of NHL teams lose money while operating, so a 2 week shut down saves the league money. But you could be right, it may make sense to say no and keep the league going.

The viewership in the US will totally depend on their teams success, and even then will be lousy compared to this year. It is possible that none of the US networks will bother to pick the games up any way, they have been a brutal loss of money lately.

[metallicat]

I heard on the radio this afternoon that Canadian viewership peaked at a staggering 28 million.