BREAKING: We Officially Don’t Understand Ratings Anymore
April 27, 2009 7 Comments
After a weekend which saw the best opening round Stanley Cup Playoff ratings in awhile, the NHL came back down to earth this weekend. According to Sports Business Daily (Reg. required), the network’s telecast of Game 6 – Penguins vs. Flyers drew an overnight rating of 1.2/3, down from both the 1.7 overnight for Game 3 of the series, but also merely even from the 1.2 overnight from last year’s comparable telecast (4/19/08 – Flyers vs. Capitals).
There was more bad news on Sunday. NBC’s broadcast of Game 6 – Capitals vs. Rangers drew a 1.0/2 overnight rating, down big-time from last year’s comparable telecast (4/20/08 – Red Wings vs. Predators) but the same overnight as last week’s Game 2 telecast. The game tied with the ratings for the taped poker event that preceded it. Clearly the NHL’s all-East, all-the time strategy backfired on them this week.
Puck The Media 
Um, maybe it’s the killer weather on the East Coast that coincided with these two games? 90 degrees and sunny here in the DC area, both on Saturday and Sunday.
When your audience is presented with a pretty compelling reason not to be inside their house, they’re probably not going to watch. DVRs and radios probably got a workout though.
It’s called NFL draft hype and an epic NBA Basketball first round series killing the NHL.
Just because its New York doesn’t mean people care. See the 2000 World Series for proof.
Once a series goes to 3-1, as both of those have, it’s understandable that people would lose interest, including, sad but true, casual fans in Philly and DC (who, yes, would also have given priority to draft). That the Flyers could have won that game and Caps may yet win series doesn’t change that.
Seems like a couple of days ago hockey folks were irked that NBC couldn’t pick up the Devils game if Rangers had won Game 5. Given that game would have drawn even fewer than the one they did get it’s safe to say that poker or whatever would have done no worse.
actually, I was going to post the same thing that Mark did. 90 and sunny in NJ too both days over the weekend.
I think there were a lot of factors that went into the lower ratings this week. I am a Penguin fan that lives in NYC and had a friend trying to give me tickets to the Flyers Pens game in Philadelphia, but I couldnt find a soul to go to the game because everyone was either going to the beach that day or the poconos, or they went or was watching the Blue and White Game (Penn State Spring Football). That game alone would kill .3 in the state of Pennsylvania.
And the handful of hockey fans who refuse to watch NBC now.