Canadian TV’s 10 Most-Watched Playoff Games (As of Yesterday)

From Chris Zelkovich of The Star’s Sports Media Watch:

1. Canucks at Blues, Tuesday, CBC: 1,668,000

2. Canucks at Blues, Sunday, CBC: 1,625,000

3. Blues at Canucks, Friday, CBC: 1,323,000

4. Bruins at Canadiens, Monday, CBC: 1,248,000

5. Canadiens at Bruins, Saturday, CBC: 1,174,000

6. Blackhawks at Flames, Monday, TSN: 938,000

7. Flyers at Penguins, Friday, CBC: 784,000

8. Sharks at Ducks, Tuesday, CBC: 738,000

9. Flames at Blackhawks, Saturday, TSN: 727,000

10. Penguins at Flyers, Sunday, CBC: 722,000

NESN Has Highest-Rated Bruins Playoff Series Ever

BOSTON, MA – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, earned a 9.2 average household rating for the Boston Bruins four game sweep of the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. This is the highest rated playoff series in NESN’s 25 year history. The 9.2 rating equals an average of 221,000 households in the Boston DMA.

NESN’s previous record rating for a playoff series was an 8.4 household rating, which the network earned during the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Canadiens, a series that went seven games.

“It’s remarkable that we have been able to set a new NESN playoff ratings record in only a four game series,” said NESN president Sean McGrail. ”Boston is proving that this is a hockey town that boasts some of the most loyal hockey fans in the NHL.”

NESN’s ratings for the four game series proved to be consistent, featuring the network’s third (9.5 – Game 2), fourth (9.4 – Game 1) and fifth (9.2 – Game 4) highest rated Bruins games of all time.

NESN’s ratings performance in the key demographic categories are up over 60% in almost every category vs. last year’s playoff coverage including Women 25-54 where the network is up 77% year over year. The network’s pre and post-game programs have also seen exceptional growth since last year’s first round playoff coverage with WB Mason Bruins Face-Off LIVE up 126% (2.7 HH) and Bruins Overtime LIVE presented by Ace Ticket.com up 81% (3.6 HH).

NESN now awaits the conclusion of the remaining Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series and a subsequent announcement from the NHL regarding the Eastern Conference Semifinal broadcast schedule. NESN will broadcast all the Bruins Eastern Conference Semifinal games not selected by the NHL’s national broadcast partners.

Universal Sports to Air World Championships in theStates

UNIVERSAL SPORTS 
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6 
4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S QUARTERFINAL 1 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 
6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S QUARTERFINAL 2 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 

UNIVERSAL SPORTS 
THURSDAY, MAY 7 
4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S QUARTERFINAL 3 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 
6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S QUARTERFINAL 4 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 

UNIVERSAL SPORTS 
FRIDAY, MAY 8 
4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S SEMI FINAL 1 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 

6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S SEMI FINAL 2 (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 

UNIVERSAL SPORTS 
SUNDAY, MAY 10 
11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S BRONZE MEDAL (same day) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 
2: 30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. 
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S GOLD MEDAL (live) 
Site: Bern, Switzerland 

Equal Time: The Pensblog Strikes Back

 

Credit: TPB

You know, this is gonna’ sound like a cop out, but once we write something about someone that’s less than complementary, we really leave it all out there.  We’re done with it.  We think the guys who write The Pensblog are real swell.  We’d love to hang out with them if they travel up to Jersey for the Devils-Penguins series in Round 2… in 2014 or so.

That said, they did go pretty low with their shot back at me in their post yesterday.  Talk about cheap:

PUCK THE MEDIA’s Steve Lepore says we have lost the battle with NBC.

 

No blog post about Steve losing the battle to male pattern baldness. wooo

Woah there, boys.  You can’t just attack a man’s hair like that.  Shit is out of line!  Oh well, what am I to do.  Only 14 people read my blog according to the C-Bloggers who flamed my own comments, so I’m left powerless against your mighty wits.

Anyway, now that that’s over, some of the inbreds over at The Pensbore made some good points.  Like “debrisslide” who made a point we certainly empathize with about being unable to afford playoff tickets:

I was there last year during the SCF, when NBC wasn’t douching people.
Aside from some people screaming obscenities at Wings fans, it was pretty family friendly and a great atmosphere, and is wonderful for all the fans to come together. If you find any YouTubes of it, the atmosphere is actually pretty electrifying.
Having it taken away sucks. I’m in college and I can’t afford to go to NHL playoff games inside the arena, and the screen was the next best thing. I was so excited to get off of school this summer and (provided the Pens make it deep in the playoffs) chill at the big screen with my friends and boyfriend. But deep in the playoffs means NBC, which means my fucking couch. It sucks. It’s such a great thing that the Pens organization does for its fans. Pensblog is right to try to raise hell about it, however unsuccessful their efforts and unrealistic their goals. We wouldn’t be the fanbase we are if they didn’t.

Well done, sir.  I’m a college student as well, and I understand wanting to be a part of a run while still maintaining my dirt poor-ness.  But I think “NNYPensFan” makes the ultimate point of the entire “war”:

We may not win the battle, or the war, but we have made our point. The NBC mailboxes have been filled to capacity and beyond with emails from The Pensblog voicing our displeasure over the change of heart by NBC. (They had no problem allowing the NBC games to be aired on the big screen last year.) If nothing else, have have inconvenienced them, as they did us.

Amen to you sir.  Thanks to all The Pensblog readers who rose our total readership up to 16 this week.  And thanks to those goofy homos over at the “The Pensblog Staff” for being fairly solid dudes about all of this.

Jimmy Fallon’s Twitter FAIL WHALE

jimmyfallonGreat time at Ranger game. Avery is a tough dude. They won 2-1! http://twitpic.com/3t4gf8 minutes ago from Tweetie

Your TV Guide and Open Thread For Night Eight of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

This will appear every night to inform you of the TV networks and announcers that will be covering the games during the playoffs.  Enjoy all the local and national info, after the jump.

What Is the NHL’s Emergency Plan For This Weekend?

Before we move on, here are NBC’s hockey listings for the weekend:

SATURDAY, APRIL 25 
3 p.m. – 6 p.m. 
NHL CONFERENCE QUARTER FINAL: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Philadelphia Flyers (Game 6) (live) 
Commentators: Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Darren Pang, Mike Milbury 
Site: Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA 
*Available in High Definition

SUNDAY, APRIL 26 
2 p.m. – 5 p.m. 
NHL CONFERENCE QUARTER FINAL: Washington Capitals @ NY Rangers (Game 6) (live) 
Commentators: Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire, Mike Milbury 
Site: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 
*Available in High Definition 

So more Panger action for NBC.  But what happens if NBC doesn’t have those two games to go to this weekend?  The network has had to make replacements before in such a situation.  They had to replace regional action of Ottawa/Pittsburgh and Rangers/Atlanta due to early endings for both series with Game 6 of a Tampa/New Jersey set.  But other than that, it hasn’t come up for the net.

Mike Emrick and the NBC promos seemed to indicate that the network would shift it’s schedule around if need be, stating that they didn’t know where they’d be broadcasting from next week during the telecast of Pens/Flyers Game 5.  Now, with the Pens going home up 3-1 in the series, an open Saturday seems like a definite possibility.  If the Rangers come back from Monday’s defeat two win two straight over Washington, that series will also be over.

This is where things can turn dicey.  While Sunday it appears there is a logical succession plan of Devils/Hurricanes Game 6 subbing for Rangers/Caps Game 6 (As the time is still listed for the game as TBD), both potential replacement series for Saturday – Columbus/Detroit Game 5 and Anaheim/San Jose Game 5 – have listed start times, and are scheduled to be aired on VERSUS.  The network has even sent me announcer assignments for the games, so clearly they intend on going ahead and airing them.

Will NBC release a plan before Thursday’s Pens/Flyers game detailing their plans?  Will the teams be able to pull off the time change on such short notice?  Or will NBC just give the three hours of programming back to their affiliates, as they seem to care less and less about hockey these days (They’ve already dropped two of their four scheduled conference finals dates)?  We shall see in the coming days.

VERSUS IndyCar Numbers Improve with Round 2

From Anthony Schoettle of The Score (Indiana Business Journal Blog, not the Canadian network, just to clarify): 

The Grand Prix at Long Beach last Sunday scored a .5 TV rating for the Indy Racing League, according to New York-based Nielsen Media Research. That’s the same rating the race earned last year on ESPN 2 when it was the swan song for CART.

Since the Versus cable channel isn’t carried in as many U.S. households as ESPN2, viewership was down slightly from last year. This year, 388,864 households tuned in, compared to 485,604 in 2008. Still this year’s Long Beach rating is a dramatic improvement over the .3 rating (233,000 households) the IRL earned for its debut on Versus April 5 at St. Petersburg. The TV rating for the St. Petersburg race was down 60 percent from the same race a year ago.

Those numbers are better than VERSUS’ NHL average households (Around 310,000) but are irrelevant as IRL is a once-a-week sport, whereas many people, like myself, can watch up to 10-15 games a week with VERSUS, NBC, Center Ice and regional sports networks in some weeks.  But good for IndyCar and good for VERSUS.  I’d be real interested to see what VERSUS drew for the two Stanley Cup Playoff games (Vancouver-St. Louis and Anaheim-San Jose) that followed.

Rangers Score Highest TV Rating in 12 Years

We always love to point to a story from Neil Best of Newsday:

Monday night’s Capitals-Rangers game was watched by an average of 2.72 percent of New York-area homes, the highest-rated Rangers game on MSG since April 22, 1997, when a first-round playoff game against the Panthers averaged 3.04 percent.

 

 

This doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.  The Rangers moved all the way to the Conference Finals in that year.  So none of the games MSG broadcast in Round 2 against the Devils drew higher ratings than a first-round game vs. Florida?  That’s really the only question I have here.  Otherwise, yay Cablevision.

Rich Man Buys Expensive Condo With Money Made From Quebec and Winnipeg Fans’ Tears

 

The Grand Beekman in Manhattan

Because of course, Commissioner Bettman would buy a condo in a building that sounds a lot like his name.  Am I right, folks?  

Now you all know where Gary Bettman lives, and it’s all thanks to Blockshopper Manhattan’s Ginny Cox:

Gary B. Bettman and Michelle W. Bettman bought a two-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo at 400 E. 51st St. in Midtown East from Mariam Azarm for $1.95 million on Mar. 20.

The 1,504-square-foot, Unit #20B is in The Grand Beekman condominium building. It was built in 2003, and has 89 units on 32 floors.

Mr. Bettman has served as the commissioner of the National Hockey League since Feb. 1993. The league has added six teams during his tenure and he’s widely credited for putting the league’s stamp on the southern United States, with clubs such as the Nashville Predators and the Atlanta Thrashers.

He also oversaw the largest television contract in league history with ABC and ESPN in 1998, and helped negotiate the league’s deal with the Versus network after the lockout of 2004-05. He also hosts a weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio.

Prior to joining the NHL, he served as a senior vice president and general counsel to the National Basketball Association. His brother is the commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

That last fact I was totally not aware of.  Can he get his brother to take a time machine to stop destroying our sport’s position on ESPN?  And why did his brother get the competent marketing genes?  Anyway, you now know where Gary Bettman lives.  Do with this information what you will.  Do not blame us in Mr. Bettman’s civil suit against you, we’re merely the messenger.