Regional TV ratings for NHL teams

[jstewismybastardson]

Amazing disparity between top and bottom ... Panthers reach Habs single game viewership on game broadcast number 52 of the season (if they even broadcast that many)


Top 10 Regional Television Audiences for NHL clubs (09-’10)

Six of the top nine regional television audiences in the National Hockey League during the 2009-’10 regular season were held by Canada’s six NHL franchises; including the top four in Montreal (which uses national French-language carrier RDS as its regional rights holder), Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. Defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh rounds out the top five as measured by average number of viewers per regular season game broadcast. The disparity between the top three clubs in Canada’s three largest media markets and the rest of the league is significant: average viewership for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver is larger than the cumulative audiences for the NHL’s next 10 clubs combined.

TOP TEN
Rank Club Regional rights holder Average audience
Per game broadcast

1* Montreal Canadiens RDS* 688,000*
2 Toronto Maple Leafs Rogers Sportsnet Ontario 656,400
3 Vancouver Canucks Rogers Sportsnet Pacific 398,500
4 Calgary Flames Rogers Sportsnet West 221,300
5 Pittsburgh Penguins FSN Pittsburgh 214,100
6 Chicago Blackhawks Comcast Sportsnet / WGN-TV 9 196,800
7 Detroit Red Wings FSN Detroit 186,600
8 Edmonton Oilers Rogers Sportsnet West 181,400
9 Ottawa Senators Rogers Sportsnet Ontario 153,400
10 New York Rangers MSG Network 152,200
MIDDLE TEN
11 Philadelphia Flyers Comcast Sportsnet / CN8 147,900
12 Boston Bruins NESN (New England Sports Network) 120,800
13 New Jersey Devils MSG Plus 99,200
14 Buffalo Sabres MSG Network 93,600
15 Washington Capitals Comcast Sportsnet 85,400
16 St. Louis Blues FSN Midwest 67,000
17 Minnesota Wild FSN North / KSTC-TV 66,500
18 San Jose Sharks CSN California 63,200
19 Los Angeles Kings FSN West / Prime ticket 62,400
20 New York Islanders MSG Plus 61,500
BOTTOM TEN
21 Colorado Avalanche Altitude 54,700
22 Anaheim Ducks FSN West 54,700
23 Dallas Stars FSN Southwest / KDFI My27 42,400
24 Columbus Blue Jackets FSN Ohio 29,600
25 Phoenix Coyotes FSN Arizona 26,500

26 Carolina Hurricanes FSN Carolina 25,300 (est.)
27 Nashville Predators FSN Tennessee 25,300 (est.)
28 Tampa Bay Lightning Sun Sports 25,100
29 Atlanta Thrashers Sportsouth 18,000
30 Florida Panthers FSN Florida 13,400

* Canadian ratings are provided by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement and are based on average number of viewers per game broadcast. U.S. ratings are derived from information provided by the Nielsen Company, which measures its audiences in terms of number of households. The Nielsen numbers are converted to viewer numbers by using a multiplier of 2.3 viewers per household.

** RDS is national French-language carrier. Audience estimates include incremental amount of RDS subscribers outside of the province of Quebec.

*** Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators do not officially release their television ratings

 

[UTVolCountry]

27 Nashville Predators

That sucks. Guess I'm one of the few that watches every game.

 

[loki604]

Penguins are becoming an actual hockey market (and not just a Penguins market) more than I could have ever expected.

 

[scottflyers88]

any team will gather fans while they are winning. the phillies have so many fans now that probably can not name half the team. it happens with every team. philadelphia is number 11 and i guess that number would grow if comcast actually allowed other cable providers or dish providers to actually show their feed.

 

[puckhead]

The disparity between the top three clubs in Canada’s three largest media markets and the rest of the league is significant: average viewership for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver is larger than the cumulative audiences for the NHL’s next 10 clubs combined.
[/I]

that deserves a 'Wow"

That sucks. Guess I'm one of the few that watches every game.

you need to call a few of your buddies over for each game

 

[scottflyers88]

no tell your buddies to stay home and watch. then you get more ratings.

 

[puckhead]

no tell your buddies to stay home and watch. then you get more ratings.

I'm presuming that the majority of people in Nashville are not hockey fans.
My suggestion was that he convert the masses.

 

[sTyLnK]

Hey my team was better then I thought they would be considering how terrible they've been.

 

[dare2be]

that deserves a 'Wow"

Indeed.

Comparing US market sizes of Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Boston to the market size of Pittsburgh is another "Wow" that Pittsburgh is ahead of them, and by a large margin for some.

 

[maddogmark25]

Indeed.

Comparing US market sizes of Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Boston to the market size of Pittsburgh is another "Wow" that Pittsburgh is ahead of them, and by a large margin for some.

all of those cities you mentioned have an NBA franchise that is usually a part of the same network that the local hockey team is on as well; Pittsburgh has no basketball team, and so that does help Pittsburgh's numbers a bit

I would be interested to see the ratings 5 years ago, perhaps the year before the lockout, to see just how much winning (or losing) helps/hurts ratings (see: Pitt, Wash, Colorado, Tampa Bay)

 

[scottflyers88]

winning and losing has huge impacts. the phillies are one of the most watched baseball teams now. nobody talked much about them when they were losing. look at the capitals. they had barely any fans a few years ago and then when they made the playoffs they had a ton. that playoff series was great and probably helped build their fan base.

 

[sTyLnK]

all of those cities you mentioned have an NBA franchise that is usually a part of the same network that the local hockey team is on as well; Pittsburgh has no basketball team, and so that does help Pittsburgh's numbers a bit

I would be interested to see the ratings 5 years ago, perhaps the year before the lockout, to see just how much winning (or losing) helps/hurts ratings (see: Pitt, Wash, Colorado, Tampa Bay)

Good point. Other sports teams playing at the same time would cause a dip in numbers no question.

 

[dare2be]

Good point. Other sports teams playing at the same time would cause a dip in numbers no question.

That is a good point, I didn't consider that. Now that I am considering it, teams playing at the same time could potentially drop rating numbers in half, for both teams. I still find it impressive though when those markets have 3-5 times the size.

 

[Predsfan22]

That sucks. Guess I'm one of the few that watches every game.

Do you think Crispy is turning into a curmodgeon? I'm all for the hometown announcers not sugar-coating our teams shortcomings, but he is just overly critical this year.

 

[scottflyers88]

preds fan i am just wondering why you have a carcillo avatar.

 

[Predsfan22]

preds fan i am just wondering why you have a carcillo avatar.

I figured I'd use my avatar as a way to salute my favorite players. Ive always been a fan of agitators or tough guys with skill.

 

[scottflyers88]

what are you the only non flyers fan who likes him? did you see his eddie van halen shoes?

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Don't a lot of people in Detroit and Buffalo watch on CBC? I wonder what those numbers look like, it seems like they are never factored in to these articles. I can't believe a town like Buffalo wouldn't be in the top ten.

 

[dare2be]

Don't a lot of people in Detroit and Buffalo watch on CBC? I wonder what those numbers look like, it seems like they are never factored in to these articles. I can't believe a town like Buffalo wouldn't be in the top ten.

Wouldn't games being shown on FSN Detroit or MSG locally black out the CBC broadcasts, you know for exclusivity reasons? Or do viewers in those areas actually have a choice of which channel to watch on any given night?

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Wouldn't games being shown on FSN Detroit or MSG locally black out the CBC broadcasts, you know for exclusivity reasons? Or do viewers in those areas actually have a choice of which channel to watch on any given night?

these are regular season regional broadcast numbers ... Only the games on the regional broadcaster are included in the totals. For that matter, in Detroit and Buffalos case, I dont think there would be very much overlap between games on CBC and FSN Detroit to pull viewers away from FSN Detroit. How many times this year was Detroit on CBC? 6 times ??? Buffalo??? 5 times ???

one thing that no one brought up (it was a footnote above) that I heard discussed elsewhere was the Habs numbers are skewed because their regional broadcaster is actually available across canada, RDS (French TSN).

Surprisingly (probably only to the canadians on this board), 95% of programming subscribers for RDS come from Quebec so the numbers are fairly accurate