2020 NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Viewership Tanking

[Twilight Sparkle]

 

Quote

On one of the busiest sports weekends in recent memory, the Stanley Cup Final got off to its slowest start in the ratings since 2007.

Saturday’s Stanley Cup Final Game 1 (Stars-Lightning) averaged a 1.1 rating and 2.12 million viewers on NBC (2.16M including streaming), marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 1 of the Cup Final since 2007, when Senators-Ducks averaged a 0.5 and 769,000 on NBCSN precursor Versus.

 

The low numbers come with a laundry list of caveats. This year’s Stanley Cup Final is taking place four months later than scheduled in an empty stadium in Edmonton. Due to the later date, its competition is a mix of the usual (NBA games) and unprecedented (college and pro football). Finally, Stars-Lightning is the first all-“Sun Belt” matchup in Stanley Cup Final history and as such may have been less of a draw even in a normal year.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2020/09/stanley-cup-final-ratings-game-1-lowest-13-years/

 

there's a common theme here: 2007 was rock bottom for the NHL, and this year we're back to that. I understand that we're in a really weird time and all with corona, but this information is pretty telling, with the NHL's lack of promotion of ALL of its teams, but only focusing on the "bigger" markets. with how good tampa bay has been the past few years, why haven't they been given the same love as the original 6, or philadelphia, or washington? Dallas I kinda understand, they're just kinda there. it doesn't help that the NBA is countering with some of its "big market teams" in their playoffs and we have... Tampa Bay and... Dallas for the championship... Two teams the NHL just chooses to put on the side, but who saw Dallas making the finals? Anybody?

 

NHL has done a fantastic job with the bubble concept, but now we're kinda learning that they screwed a lot of these guys over and just overall shadiness of this whole thing, but to us fans, we see it as they did the best they could and the players put their mental health more on the line, than their physical bodies. It feels like something Stephen King would write about with these players being trapped in some kind of twisted social experiment.

 

to me, yea, corona played a large part in the hurting viewership. looking at the glass half full, pulling around 2M viewers for a hockey game, in September, is about as good as you can do during a global pandemic, but even if you call yourself the biggest hockey fan in the world, you can't sit there with a straight face and say that you're super stoked on Tampa Bay and Dallas and that'd because the NHL just hasn't done enough to make people care about these teams. Dallas probably has opened up a lot of eyes in that, holy **** they've got a lot of young promising stars blossoming before our eyes and the league just hasn't highlighted that at all. Why should people care? No marketing that "anything can happen in the NHL, expect the unexpected, we're not a 4 team league" idk SOMETHING to get people to say, huh this is different\

 

TL;DR: No one cares about the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Twilight Sparkle

[Maginator]

NBC only though, right? So these numbers aren't including Canadian viewership on CBC?

 

I felt similarly at the beginning of this series "Dallas vs Tampa, whoopee".. but the hockey is still entertaining. Both teams are working their tails off. At the end of the day its not about the jersey these guys are wearing.

I don't think its anything for the NHL to be concerned about either. Strange year. Strange time for anyone to follow the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you weren't into it in August, you're probably not just tuning in now.

[peaches5]

1 hour ago, Twilight Sparkle said:

 

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2020/09/stanley-cup-final-ratings-game-1-lowest-13-years/

 

there's a common theme here: 2007 was rock bottom for the NHL, and this year we're back to that. I understand that we're in a really weird time and all with corona, but this information is pretty telling, with the NHL's lack of promotion of ALL of its teams, but only focusing on the "bigger" markets. with how good tampa bay has been the past few years, why haven't they been given the same love as the original 6, or philadelphia, or washington? Dallas I kinda understand, they're just kinda there. it doesn't help that the NBA is countering with some of its "big market teams" in their playoffs and we have... Tampa Bay and... Dallas for the championship... Two teams the NHL just chooses to put on the side, but who saw Dallas making the finals? Anybody?

 

NHL has done a fantastic job with the bubble concept, but now we're kinda learning that they screwed a lot of these guys over and just overall shadiness of this whole thing, but to us fans, we see it as they did the best they could and the players put their mental health more on the line, than their physical bodies. It feels like something Stephen King would write about with these players being trapped in some kind of twisted social experiment.

 

to me, yea, corona played a large part in the hurting viewership. looking at the glass half full, pulling around 2M viewers for a hockey game, in September, is about as good as you can do during a global pandemic, but even if you call yourself the biggest hockey fan in the world, you can't sit there with a straight face and say that you're super stoked on Tampa Bay and Dallas and that'd because the NHL just hasn't done enough to make people care about these teams. Dallas probably has opened up a lot of eyes in that, holy **** they've got a lot of young promising stars blossoming before our eyes and the league just hasn't highlighted that at all. Why should people care? No marketing that "anything can happen in the NHL, expect the unexpected, we're not a 4 team league" idk SOMETHING to get people to say, huh this is different\

 

TL;DR: No one cares about the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.

The NHL Centreice is a joke and streaming is getting far easier to find and the quality is a+ unlike it used to be when streams would be low quality and frequently crash. When you try to nickel and dime your fans they will look elsewhere.

[Twilight Sparkle]

44 minutes ago, Maginator said:

NBC only though, right? So these numbers aren't including Canadian viewership on CBC?

 

I felt similarly at the beginning of this series "Dallas vs Tampa, whoopee".. but the hockey is still entertaining. Both teams are working their tails off. At the end of the day its not about the jersey these guys are wearing.

I don't think its anything for the NHL to be concerned about either. Strange year. Strange time for anyone to follow the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you weren't into it in August, you're probably not just tuning in now.

compared to the US market, the canadian market is so small, most canadian stations, like sportsnet won't even make the numbers public if it reflects badly on them. if NBC, one of the US top cable stations can't pull 2M viewers for two amercian teams no one cares about, what makes a sane person think those same amount of canadians are going to watch two southern teams go at it? It's a very, very small audience

 

i will agree it's been pretty good hockey, i love that in game two it got pretty ugly, but with basketball, baseball and football happening all at once, it's such a saturated market that hockey is just on the bottom, like, no one really cares.

 

if i'm the NHL, i'm still looking at this as a win, because it's still 2M+ watching hockey during a pandemic, and in the summertime, but that steep decline compared to previous years when the NHL was breaking records for total viewership for their product, definitely hurts with "southern teams" fighting for the championship, in an over-saturated american sports market, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters

[Junkyard Dog]

Not just NHL having viewership problems. NBA is having it bad too.

[nux4lyfe]

6 minutes ago, Junkyard Dog said:

Not just NHL having viewership problems. NBA is having it bad too.

As well as the NFL.

[Twilight Sparkle]

1 minute ago, Junkyard Dog said:

Not just NHL having viewership problems. NBA is having it bad too.

their numbers still triple, almost quadruple what the NHL is doing. it's just the status quo

 

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

my OP was about the NHL failing to market itself and its players, outside of the powers that be, that strapped the rocket to the crosbys and ovechkins to the american market. rogers has done its part in selling new talent like elias pettersson and quinn hughes, nathan mackinnon, etc to the national market, but the NHL itself has done nothing to promote them or even protect them, and it was up to more outside media to promote these guys FOR the NHL, while the NBA perfected this practice as a league to protect the star players; they understand what and who's trending. they know what the audience wants, while the NHL constantly takes one step forward and two steps back by over complicating the game

 

i dont really pay attention to football, but the NBA will always be that #1 market that the NHL will always trying to be playing catch up on, and never will

Edited September 23, 2020 by Twilight Sparkle

[Ghostsof1915]

19 minutes ago, Twilight Sparkle said:

my OP was about the NHL failing to market itself and its players, outside of the powers that be, that strapped the rocket to the crosbys and ovechkins to the american market. rogers has done its part in selling new talent like elias pettersson and quinn hughes, nathan mackinnon, etc to the national market, but the NHL itself has done nothing to promote them or even protect them, and it was up to more outside media to promote these guys FOR the NHL, while the NBA perfected this practice as a league to protect the star players; they understand what and who's trending. they know what the audience wants, while the NHL constantly takes one step forward and two steps back by over complicating the game

 

i dont really pay attention to football, but the NBA will always be that #1 market that the NHL will always trying to be playing catch up on, and never will

The NBA is successful despite itself. The players dictate who wins. There's no loyalty. They are all mercenaries. Rarely, if ever, do small market teams ever build and win championships.

The fanbase in hockey I would say is just as passionate and committed as the NBA. It's just no where near the size. A great point was made, take a person to live game.

Most of the time once they watch it live, they will turn into a fan. Can't do that in a covid upside down world.

 

I'm still not sure the NHL's southern expansion has worked. Arizona/Phoenix seems to be a dud, as is Southern Florida. I'm going to be curious to see how long term if the fans will still be there in Vegas. Especially if that team starts to struggle. Especially now with the NFL in Vegas.

[Silky mitts]

Not surprised when NBA playoffs are on going along with NFL back in full effect. 

[Battlemonger]

1 hour ago, Junkyard Dog said:

Not just NHL having viewership problems. NBA is having it bad too.

I guess people are not interested with politics in their sports. I guess they used to watch sports to get a break from politics. So, I guess quite a few people just stopped watching sports.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Twilight Sparkle said:

their numbers still triple, almost quadruple what the NHL is doing. it's just the status quo

 

 

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2020/09/02/nba-ratings-crash-continues-lakers-big-win-least-watched-game-series/ 

 

2020 playoffs have been very bad for the NBA, so saying that it was "the most watched game of 2020" is a funny way to put it.  NBA, NFL and Nascar will always pull in bigger numbers in the USA then the NHL.  

[CBH1926]

Hockey teams from Texas and Florida, ratings are down, what a surprise!

[Tortorella's Rant]

Of course.. non-traditional hockey markets. Most of the population there doesn't care and neither does the great white north at this point. 

[UKNuck96]

4 hours ago, peaches5 said:

The NHL Centreice is a joke and streaming is getting far easier to find and the quality is a+ unlike it used to be when streams would be low quality and frequently crash. When you try to nickel and dime your fans they will look elsewhere.

Yep - look at the NBA equivalent it’s miles apart in terms of quality.

 

Also as an overseas viewer the NBA one is pretty decent and set up to support that, the NHL one you pay for and get a metric tonne of blackouts which is a joke 

[CBH1926]

37 minutes ago, Tortorella's Rant said:

Of course.. non-traditional hockey markets. Most of the population there doesn't care and neither does the great white north at this point. 

High school football in Texas and Florida has bigger audience than the NHL?

[c00kies]

33 minutes ago, CBH1926 said:

High school football in Texas and Florida has bigger audience than the NHL?

I'd be surprised if it didn't.

[butters]

3 hours ago, Battlemonger said:

I guess people are not interested with politics in their sports. I guess they used to watch sports to get a break from politics. So, I guess quite a few people just stopped watching sports.

that's sure what some people like to tell themselves! 

[Twilight Sparkle]

1 hour ago, CBH1926 said:

High school football in Texas and Florida has bigger audience than the NHL?

If King of the hill taught me anything is high school football is everything in Texas XD

[JeremyCuddles]

6 hours ago, Junkyard Dog said:

Not just NHL having viewership problems. NBA is having it bad too.

NBA and NFL are suffering cause a lot of Americans are up in their feels about the BLM movement finding it's way into those leagues. Specifically the NBA. Not having any fans does make the NHL games feel rather empty, but for me personally it's fine. So I wonder if the NHL viewing experience is suffering without fans in attendance. Americans have a hard enough time tracking the puck as is, can't imagine empty stands helps them enjoy the game.