NHL Business Blog: NHL on NBC Ratings Dissapoint This Weekend

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Monday, April 28, 2008

NHL on NBC Ratings Dissapoint This Weekend

The NHL on NBC ratings for this weekend were disappointing. The Detroit Red Wings-Colorado Avalanche game only managed a 1.0 TV rating

The NHL on NBC ratings for this weekend were disappointing. The Detroit Red Wings-Colorado Avalanche game only managed a 1.0 TV rating, which is even with the rating the Red Wings-Sharks series got last year. Apparently the renewal of the old Detroit-Colorado rivalry wasn't enough to convince hockey fans to tune in. Or maybe they saw Game 1. If they did, I don't blame them for not tuning in. You would never know these two teams were once heated rivals by the way they played. There was very little physicality and bad blood between the teams, in fact it was downright boring. Things better pick up when the two teams meet in Colorado, otherwise they may have a hard time convincing fans to tune in.

Even more astonishing is the fact that they couldn't even equal the 1.3 rating the Rangers got playing the small market Sabres last season.

Even more disappointing, was the meager 1.2 rating that the Penguins and Rangers pulled in. Personally, I was astonished that the most famous US team in the NHL and Sidney Crosby and his band of stars were only able to pull in 200,000 more people than the Wings and Avalanche. Even more astonishing is the fact that they couldn't even equal the 1.3 rating the Rangers got playing the small market Sabres last season.

It seems as if the NHL is consistently around a certain TV rating for each round and gets only that rating no matter which teams are playing. They seem to lose enough fans in the markets that are not participating to ensure the ratings stay around that number. The league is going to have to find more ways to build scale and fan loyalty to improve these ratings. The NHL Network and NHL Network Online are good starts, but we'll have to see what they can do in the future.