O Canada, you’re a ratings killer south of the border. This year’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs ratings are down substantially in the United States on account of its decidedly Canadian flavor this season.
According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, viewership through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is down 28% on the ESPN family of networks and 19% on TNT Sports versus last year’s record-setting early-round viewership. ESPN is averaging 886,000 viewers per contest while TNT Sports is averaging 882,000 viewers.
Of course, the heavy dose of Canadian teams has likely kept interest suppressed in the United States. In all, three of the four second round series featured one Canadian team whereas just one second round series featured Canadian teams during last year’s record-setting run. Similarly, the second round this year featured just one Original Six team (the Toronto Maple Leafs), whereas last year’s featured two and both were American sides (the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins).
Naturally, the increase in Canadian teams has had the opposite impact for Canadian viewership. Per Lewis, the combined U.S. and Canadian audience for the second round was up 12% versus last year, averaging 3.4 million viewers per game and setting a ten-year high.
Given that hockey is a much larger draw in Canada than in the United States, it’s reasonable to look at the combined viewership figures when assessing the overall health of the league. From that perspective, there’s no need to panic.
Would the league like to see some bigger markets and more Original Six teams make deeper runs? Sure. But the NHL shouldn’t be losing sleep because they’re over-indexing on Canadian teams this year, especially when those teams are drawing substantial audiences north of the border.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.