The NHL’s television partners had a solid opening night on Wednesday.
NBCSN drew 956,000 viewers for their telecast of Flyers-Bruins, tied with a Rangers-Bruins game from the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season for the most-watched NHL regular season game in network history (dating back to the channel’s history as OLN in 2005) and the most-watched opening night doubleheader on cable on record (dating back to 1993).
Flyers-Bruins was up a little over two percent from last season’s opener between the Capitals and Blackhawks (935,000). The game was the highest-rated in NBCSN history. The game drew a 7.8 rating in Boston and a 4.6 in Philadelphia.
NBCSN’s late game between the Sharks and Kings drew 446,000, the second most-watched 10 p.m. ET-or-later regular game in network history, behind only the Kings-Ducks showdown at Dodger Stadium last season. It was up 30 percent from the last time the network had a late-night game opening night, Pittsburgh-Vancouver in 2011.
Meanwhile, Rogers Sportsnet debuted their new multi-billion dollar cable package with a doubleheader of its own. Their early game, Canadiens-Maple Leafs drew 2.01 million viewers. That was down 14 percent from last year’s opener — also Habs-Leafs — on CBC (2.33 million). Worth reminding that the CBC is more widely distributed as the public network in Canada.
Overall, the game was the most-watched program in the history of Sportsnet. The previous #1? The Blue Jays season opener against Cleveland in 2013.
Sportsnet’s late game — Flames-Canucks — drew one million viewers even, down five percent from Jets-Oilers last year (1.05M).
NHL US opening night viewership since 2003
2003, Regional Coverage – NJ/BOS, CHI/MIN, ANA/DAL (ESPN): 476,000
2005, NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia (OLN): 353,000
2006, Buffalo vs. Carolina (VERSUS): 337,000
2006, Dallas vs. Colorado (VERSUS): 301,000
2007, Anaheim vs. Detroit (VERSUS): 421,000
2007, Dallas vs. Colorado (VERSUS): 289,000
2008, Toronto vs. Detroit (VERSUS): 573,000
2008, Boston vs. Colorado (VERSUS): 361,000
2009, Washington vs. Boston (VERSUS): 501,000
2009, San Jose vs. Colorado (VERSUS): 330,000
2010, Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh (VERSUS): 703,000
2010, Chicago vs. Colorado (VERSUS): 430,000
2011, Philadelphia vs. Boston (VERSUS): 874,000
2011, Pittsburgh vs. Vancouver (VERSUS): 342,000
2012, Regional Coverage – CHI/LA, PIT/PHI (NBC): 2.77 million
2013, Washington vs. Chicago (NBCSN): 935,000
2014, Philadelphia vs. Boston (NBCSN): 956,000
2014, San Jose vs. Los Angeles (NBCSN): 446,000
5 most watched NHL regular season games on NBCSN*
t1. Philadelphia vs. Boston (10/8/14): 956,000
t1. Boston vs. NY Rangers (1/23/13): 956,000
3. Washington vs. Chicago (10/1/13): 935,000
4. Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh (2/20/13): 901,000
5. Boston vs. Philadelphia (10/6/11): 874,000
*-includes VERSUS and OLN
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