NHL regular season viewership down 12% on ESPN, TNT

Despite some perceived momentum from a successful 4 Nations Face-Off event and Alex Ovechkin’s all-time goals record chase, the NHL’s national broadcast partners saw double-digit declines versus last season.

According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, NHL games across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and truTV declined by 12% year-over-year, averaging just 445,000 viewers per telecast as compared to 504,000 across the same networks last season. These figures do not include the wildly popular 4 Nations Face-Off event.

Viewership for this season is the lowest NHL viewership has dipped since the final year of the league’s media rights deal with NBC Sports in 2020-21. That season, of course, coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic that depressed sports viewing across all properties.

Per Karp, ESPN and ABC averaged 584,000 viewers for its slate of 48 games, a 12% decrease from last year’s average of 666,000 viewers. TNT fared a bit worse, declining 13% versus last year’s average (320,000 versus 360,000). TNT’s average includes Ovechkin’s record-setting game earlier this month which drew 905,000 viewers, the most-watched regular season game the network has ever aired, aside from the Winter Classic.

As one would expect, including viewership figures from the 4 Nations Face-Off would change the entire equation for the NHL. With 4 Nations data included in the average, the NHL would find itself up 24% versus last season. Canada’s win over the United States in the championship match drew 9.3 million viewers on ESPN, by far the network’s largest hockey audience ever.

All told, the league’s national viewership fared similarly to its local viewership. That is, it was a mixed bag.

It’s unclear if the popularity of the 4 Nations Face-Off will have any positive impact on postseason viewership, but it’ll likely be an uphill battle. Five Canadian teams made the playoffs this season, a factor that might depress American audiences. And key large-market teams like the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins missed out on the postseason entirely.

But that shouldn’t discount the value of the 4 Nations Face-Off itself. The event might not have a tangible impact on NHL viewership, at least immediately, but it is still hockey inventory that delivered massive audiences out of thin air. That alone is worth something.

Would the league have liked to see an increase considering it had a successful 4 Nations event and the Ovechkin record chase? Sure. But in a declining era of television viewing, a drop off like this, while disappointing, is largely expected.

To be sure, 12% is on the steeper end of the spectrum when it comes to viewership declines — the NBA held steady at just a 2% dip this season. But would the networks take a 12% decline for the regular season in exchange for a series of eight-figure audiences in the middle of February? Likely, yes.