NHL National Viewership Down 22% in the U.S.

[indes]

Not surprised. It's boring. I've loved hockey my entire life and spent decades watching every game I could.

Now there's no way I'm spending 3 hours watching the modern NHL game. Even with the success last year I bet I watched 10 regular season games. I would much rather watch the 7-10 minute highlight package.

The game seems slow and listless to me now. There's too much parity and too much defensive responsibility. Contact is dwindling, intensity is non-existent and the game is managed with extreme predictability. It could just be me but the regular season product is just brutal.

I prefer reading CP to watching the games.

[flylock shox]

A huge part of the issue has to be about simply accessing the games in order to watch them.



I'm note even sure how I - as a Flames fan in BC - would go about legally getting access to every Flames game.



And if I can't stay in a rhythm of watching them, I'm going to lose connection to the product, and am less likely to book my Saturday the odd time I might learn I can stream it online on CBC.



Make it easy and cheap to do on the regular, and more people are likely to tune in.

[Monahammer]

Imo parity measures and overexposure cripple the league. I'm a superfan but now that I have kids I can barely bring myself to watch all but rivalry games. I just have too much more important stuff to do, and regular season games are boring and pointless.
Americans have very little vested interest in hockey. The game has become a game of xs and os, and society in general is trending away from that. Darryl Sutter is a great example. His hockey style is proven to win in tournament settings like the cup playoffs, but it's horrible to watch even when you are supporting the winners. So horribly boring.

Also agree about access problems. The archaic cable TV deals cripple the ability for the league to expand to the younger generations easily. I will probably cut my cable in the next few years permanently, and will likely lose many flames games in the process.

[Jiri Hrdina]

This is a generalization but I find a lot of fans of sports claim that the sport is getting worse as they get older.
I think it's more about lives getting busier and interests shifting.
I think the bigger issues for the league is that younger generations consume different types of content in completely different ways. That's where you are going to struggle to get them engaged for a 2.5 - 3 hour block of time. Unless they have stakes: gambling, fantasy leagues, etc.

But I don't think viewership is down because the game is worse. We are all just getting old.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

This is a generalization but I find a lot of fans of sports claim that the sport is getting worse as they get older.
I think it's more about lives getting busier and interests shifting.
I think the bigger issues for the league is that younger generations consume different types of content in completely different ways. That's where you are going to struggle to get them engaged for a 2.5 - 3 hour block of time. Unless they have stakes: gambling, fantasy leagues, etc.

But I don't think viewership is down because the game is worse. We are all just getting old.

We are older but younger audiences also view things differently.
People are used to quick snippets of entertainment and knowing the athletes through social media.

Hockey is a long game, longer season & the player personalities are generally boring and not exposed very well online.

Its a recipe for disaster in today's entertainment culture.

[bobbylouie]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I think the bigger issues for the league is that younger generations consume different types of content in completely different ways. That's where you are going to struggle to get them engaged for a 2.5 - 3 hour block of time. Unless they have stakes: gambling, fantasy leagues, etc.

But I don't think viewership is down because the game is worse. We are all just getting old.

So, younger people don't want to watch because of reason X, and older people don't want to watch because of reason Y. That's not the fault of the people, they're making a choice. That's the fault of the product = the product (or game/presentation/show/however you want to put it) is worse than when people wanted to watch it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

The reason the nhl isn’t more popular has absolutely nothing to do with lack of presidents trophy, conference championship, division wins etc. nor goal celebrations or player personalities. Zero.

It’s an expensive sport to play, it’s extremely limiting due to the requirement for indoor rinks, has no deep rooted presence in US culture, I could go on.

It is and always will be a niche sport. It will never become basketball, football or soccer. Ever.

But there are quite a few ways the league could carve our a bigger piece of the pie. They just need to accept they’ll never go toe to toe with the big boys. It’s flattering they were ever included in the “big four”.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by bobbylouie

My post will only address the general level of interest in the U.S., not why the numbers continue to drop.

As a member of an extremely elderly demographic and as a person based in a large U.S. city with an NHL team, I think Canadian fans have a skewed view of how much interest there is in the NHL in the USA. I suppose that's natural if your sense of it is based on watching games on TV and seeing mostly full arenas with what appear to be rabid fans in the U.S. home rinks.

The reality is that for 99% of the U.S. population, the NHL doesn't even exist.

Sports interest generally breaks down into 3 categories: Hardcore fans, general sports fans and non-sports fans. If you take the NFL as an example, the hardcore fans schedule their entire weekend around games, even in cases where the home team isn't participating. General fans have less rabid interest but are still very much aware of league happenings, players, etc. But even the far larger non-sports population have some awareness of who the local team is, the names of the star players, the fact that the game is on TV on a certain day, how traffic in the area might be affected, etc. They might even follow what happens in a given game just to be part of the conversation the next day to feel included.

For hockey in the U.S., hardcore fans essentially make up the entire fan base in most cities. Beyond that, casual sports fans think of the NHL as a joke ("wait, you get credit for half a win even when you lose, that can't be serious!!!"), and the general population (the vast, vast majority) have ZERO knowledge or interest.

With that, it's almost impossible to get any kind of impressive TV numbers, and as a person said earlier in this thread, it's not much more than what you'd get if you accidentally left the TV on that channel earlier in the day.

I also think there is a flaw in the logic that says "listen to what your fans are now saying". People that are still fans probably think the product is fine and survey responses you get from them are going to be skewed. You should have been listening to fans who were dissatisfied before and have already left, or try to identify those people now and see what caused them to lose interest. Somebody like an old fart like me (who worked for the league at one time) and now sees it as a joke with a crap product.

It's probably too late to get us back but I don't think you're going to learn much by only asking people who are still fans.

The only thing you got wrong is misrepresenting how much Canadians think the average American cares about hockey. Only the most delusional Canadian hockey fan thinks the nhl/hockey is anything but a fringe sport in all but a few hockey centric markets. Elsewhere it’s an afterthought.

[CGY12]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

This is a generalization but I find a lot of fans of sports claim that the sport is getting worse as they get older.
I think it's more about lives getting busier and interests shifting.
I think the bigger issues for the league is that younger generations consume different types of content in completely different ways. That's where you are going to struggle to get them engaged for a 2.5 - 3 hour block of time. Unless they have stakes: gambling, fantasy leagues, etc.

But I don't think viewership is down because the game is worse. We are all just getting old.

I agree, definitely as I've got older I'm less avid about watching compared to my younger days. However I definitely think its worse than it could be due to the way the league conducts itself and the terrible inconsistent game managing officials.

[FlamesAddiction]

With the other 3 big professional sports in the U.S., they are marketed as being part of the American way of life. It's not just an American attitude towards sports as hockey is the same way in Canada.

The trick is, how do you sell hockey like that to people outside of the niche markets? People from all over the U.S. tune into baseball, football, and basketball because it is the thing to do in America. I don't think it is so much the product as it is the zeitgeist. Without a nationwide demand for accessible broadcasts, the providers don't have an incentive. I don't believe that simply providing the service means it will increase viewership unless the demand is actually there first.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Fewer games would increase the quality of games.

Fewer teams would increase the quality of players, but that isn't going to happen either.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by CGY12

I agree, definitely as I've got older I'm less avid about watching compared to my younger days. However I definitely think its worse than it could be due to the way the league conducts itself and the terrible inconsistent game managing officials.

I don’t think officiating has gotten worse.
What do you mean by the way the league conducts itself?

[Teroy]

Here in BC, we get the odd Flames game on Centre Ice. We get Flames games on all 4 Sports Net channels randomly, but have to be careful because some of them are blacked out. We have a PVR and record all the games. We don't start playback till the live broadcast is near the end of the first period. That way we can fast forward past the "between period" talking heads and commercials. We very seldom miss a game. As disappointing as they've been, we've been fans since day one.

[CGY12]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I don’t think officiating has gotten worse.
What do you mean by the way the league conducts itself?

The nepotism within league/team roles, handling of certain big issues, the inconsistent decisions by the war room, etc.

[Toonage]

I watch just as much hockey as ever if not more with Centre Ice / NHL Live and now SN Now.

Granted I have no kids and a lot of free time.

About the only thing I find I watch less of are Oiler games as they come across as paid advertising for McDavid.

There's plenty about the presentation of the league that bothers me but I blame Sportsnet for that. Feels like they provide less than I got with NHL Live.

As for ratings down in the States, there's a good article on the Athletic about what has gone into that this year. Not as bad as the news makes it out to be. Not great, but not as bad

[stemit14]

With these viewership problems, I could see Bettman getting the word to McDavid’s agent that it might be time to demand a trade this summer… the states need a viewership bump and the league is likely tired of their superstar playing up in Shelbyville.


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[SutterBrother]

I’m a lifelong fan of hockey and the Flames (40+ years).

I watched less hockey last season and even less this than ever before because it’s become so damn annoying to do so.

The rink ads are the equivalent of a child waiving their hands in front of your face during the play.

The gambling ads during the hockey segments (not commercials) are straight human addiction damage being shoved into my living room.

The one thing that set the NHL apart was legal bare knuckle boxing. That no longer exists. I know the reason and agree - a man’s brain is worth more than bloodsport as entertainment. But acknowledge that it is a loss of the identity of the game. The game isn’t better for it even if the humans are.

The owners are making money hand over fist, and so don’t care about me as a fan. I know this, and so am less invested since the product is lesser than it was.

I pay for my hockey viewing. And I’d pay more to watch every game if I could. But they force me to pirate with blackouts. So be it.

[FireGilbert]

I'm sure the post pandemic freedoms, tightened household budgets, the Hawks tanking, and general demographics with the younger generations having more options have all contributed, but almost a quarter reduction in numbers is crazy.

My take on the problem is the NHL is offering a niche product, typically followed by affluent Americans in colder climates, and putting it behind a difficult to navigate paywall. People who might have become casual fans are never exposed to the game and existing casual fans may eventually give up. To make matters worse hockey is a sport that can be difficult for new fans to follow on TV and you really need to get them hooked when they are young.

The NHL needs to push to get hockey back on American televisions. Getting the Tuesday and Thursday games on ESPN is a start but there needs to be a free option as well. I know NBC didn't work out but they should be trying to get some games on ABC. There should also be a ban on local blackouts. These are based on some strange idea they help increase attendance when really fans will just lose interest.

[GullFoss]

I think the product would be better if the NHL designed it for more emotion. I like the product most nights relative to the late-90s and early-2000s. It's a skilled, fast game. But it does lack emotion - there's less hitting, less fighting ect.

I think that would change if the NHL put more emphasis on divisional games and had fewer games each year. That would allow emotion to build, make games more meaningful and allow players more rest between games. Imagine if the league had 70 games per year, where 35 we're played against teams in the same division. Every game would be better.

The NHL could also get rid of rules that try to remove emotion from the game...the instigator penalty should be taken out, the automatic suspension for fighting late in the game should be removed, fines for line brawls should be removed too.

Between that and having lots more divisional games...everyone, including the fans, would be more emotionally involved.

[tripin_billie]

Another thing impacting national viewership down here in the States is that if you get Disney+ or Hulu, you basically get ESPN+ for free and get every NHL streaming for free. As others have mentioned, there is just too much available content. Why would I bother tuning in for the random game they decide to make the national broadcast when I can watch whichever game I want live? I was worried when the NHL moved away from it's own NHL.tv and to ESPN+, but I was wrong, ESPN+ is basically free and way better than NHL.tv ever was.