Reasons to Not Worry as Much About NBC’s Ratings
January 20, 2010 4 Comments
Nobody’s really all that worried about the NHL On NBC’s ratings, it seems. It didn’t make too many headlines, not all that many people linked to it when it got announced. There are more important things to worry about in the world, and there are more important things to worry about in the hockey world. There are more important things to worry about in the Puck the Media world. You get the point.
But there are some things to look at it positively. For example, two popular college basketball draws on CBS both drew lower ratings than NBC’s hockey coverage, as Sports Media Watch reports:
Saturday’s Illinois/Michigan St. game, which aired opposite the Cardinals/Saints Divisional Round game, drew a 0.5 overnight rating on CBS Saturday — down 64% from Kansas/Michigan St. on NFL Divisional Weekend last year (1.4).
Keep in mind that last year’s Kansas/Michigan St. game aired earlier in the day (1 PM ET), avoiding direct competition from the NFL.
On Sunday, Connecticut/Michigan drew a slightly higher 0.6 overnight, actually up 20% from a 0.5 for Wisconsin/Purdue last year.
Both college basketball games on CBS drew lower overnight ratings than the NHL on NBC (0.8).
So, you know, some good news. However, figure skating coverage at 4PM on Sunday on the same network drew a 1.8, right up in the thick of football. Different audiences, perhaps, but the NHL and NBC should wait a little while to judge how much interest is left in their hockey coverage. Particularly, keep an eye out on the Detroit-Pittsburgh game in between the weeks of the Conference Championships and Super Bowl, and all of the games after the Olympics.
About stevelepore
I really don’t think the .8 is bad. Usually the NHL gets a 1.0 but they have never gone up against an NFL playoff game and it was the Cowboys vs Favre which was huge even though it was a horrible game like most NFL playoffs games. The NHL still did better than NCAA basketball which is kinda surprising. I wouldn’t include the figure skating because it is a totally different audience (women) and it was on late in the day not 12:30 pm like hockey
It is what it is.
they went HTH with the NFL
yup..it is what it is…
Mt. Dew Ski Challenge had .7 against football and almost beat the NHL.
They loss to figure skating. This has more to do what the NHL and NBC dont do….promote n market this game. NHL network / NOTF only does 1 thing well…show highlights. No one cares for 4hrs of talk radio. The NHL Network is cheap and a decade behind.
Seems like its always been the same problems with the NHL on TV.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088595/index.htm