NBCSN is on pace for its most-watched month ever. In other news: Olympic men’s hockey ratings tanked, 1.6 million watched the U.S. win men’s curling in the middle of the night, and the Olympic late night window hit a high.
NBCSN On Pace For Record Month
Fueled by the Winter Olympics, NBCSN has averaged 768,000 total-day viewers in the month of February, on pace as its most-watched month ever. The current high is 509,000 for August 2016, when it carried Summer Olympics coverage. NBCSN is also on pace to rank as the most-watched cable sports network this month.
Olympic Men’s Hockey Final Tanks
Saturday’s Olympic men’s hockey final between Germany and a group of Russians earned a 0.6 rating and 1.0 million viewers on NBCSN, down 76% in ratings and 71% in viewership from 2014 (Canada-Sweden: 2.5, 3.6M) and down an absurd 96% in both measures from 2010 (Canada-U.S.: 15.2, 27.6M). The 2010 and 2014 finals both aired on the NBC broadcast network, the former in a mid-afternoon window and the latter in mid-morning. In addition to airing on cable, this year’s final began after 11 PM ET.
The Russians’ win was narrowly the most-watched hockey game of the weekend, edging NBC’s Blues-Predators NHL game the following afternoon (966K). The NHL prohibited its players from participating in this year’s Olympics, reducing the men’s hockey tournament to a battle between KHL, minor-league and collegiate players. The most-watched men’s hockey game during the Olympics was a Penguins-Blues NHL game on NBC (1.9M). The top hockey game overall was the U.S.-Canada women’s final (2.9M).
U.S. Win in Curling Final Nears NBCSN High
Friday’s U.S.-Sweden Olympic men’s curling final delivered 1.6 million viewers on NBCSN, the network’s second-largest audience in a late night timeslot. The high water mark is 2.9 million for the U.S.-Canada women’s hockey final two days earlier.
Olympic Late Night Window Hits High
Across both NBC and NBCSN, late night Winter Olympics coverage averaged 8.4 million viewers — up 50% from 2014 (5.6M), up 75% from 2010 (4.8M) and the largest late night audience since 1988 on ABC (9.9M). Keep in mind that excludes Summer Olympics. Because of the time difference between Pyeongchang and the U.S., the late night windows featured a slew of live events, including alpine skiing finals and U.S. hockey games.
