NBCSN earned a record overnight for Friday’s Olympic hockey clash between Canada and the United States.
The Canada/USA Olympic men’s hockey semifinal earned a 3.4 overnight rating on NBCSN Friday afternoon, the highest overnight ever for hockey on the network (previously VERSUS and OLN). The old mark was a 3.3 overnight for last Saturday’s USA/Russia men’s hockey game, and the top mark prior to the Olympics was a 3.1 for last year’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Keep in mind that this is the first year NBCSN has aired Olympic hockey.
The last time Canada and the USA met in the Olympics — the 2010 gold medal game — the overnight rating was unsurprisingly much higher (17.6). The 2010 gold medal game aired on the NBC broadcast network in a plumb late Sunday afternoon timeslot.
Buffalo (12.1) was the top market for Friday’s game, followed by Minneapolis (8.5), Boston (7.5), Pittsburgh (7.1) and Providence, RI (6.9).
(Fri. overnight from NBC Sports)
