BREAKING: NBC Bumps Up to Matching 1.6’s for Weekend Semifinal Games
May 3, 2010 3 Comments
From SportsBusinessDaily (Reg. required):
NBC earned a 1.6 overnight Nielsen rating for its coverage of the Canadiens-Penguins NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals Game Two yesterday, even with the overnight for last year’s Red Wings-Ducks Game One, which went into triple OT. Meanwhile, the Bruins’ 5-4 overtime win over the Flyers in Game One of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series also earned NBC a 1.6 overnight, up 14.3% from a 1.4 overnight for Penguins-Capitals Game One last year.
Puck The Media 
Wow these are some impressive numbers. Obviously shows that NBC shouldn’t be scared of Canadian teams!
I wonder–any chance these ratings, plus Versus’ strong ratings for Montreal-Washington, leave NBC and Versus reconsidering their fairly anti-Canadian bias in selecting games? Maybe Toronto and Montreal can carry things in the U.S. where a team like Calgary or Edmonton can’t?
To me, it would make sense that Versus would select a strong Canadian market (Montreal or if the world stops spinning, Toronto) for the simple reason that they are blacked out locally in first round. Compelling series with only one US blackout would seem to have a chance to draw better ratings for Versus than compelling series with two US blackouts.
Doesn’t affect NBC though – as all games are shown nationally.
The star power of Crosby and the great story of the Canadiens upset was probably a good part of the ratings success; remember that NBC is only using one crew though — to have Doc and Edzo do a game on the East Coast Saturday and on the West Coast Sunday could be a recipe for disaster if there were flight/weather delays, etc, particularly given an 11am PT telecast time on Sunday.