The network once known as OLN ended its 16-year NHL run with a big increase, albeit over a low bar.
Wednesday’s Canadiens-Lightning NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 2 averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.65 million viewers on NBCSN (1.74M including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), up 42% in ratings and 45% in viewership from Stars-Lightning in the “bubble” last September (0.62, 1.14M) but down 55% and 51% respectively from Blues-Bruins in May 2019 (1.95, 3.39M).
Tampa Bay’s win, which peaked with 1.98 million viewers, marked the final NHL game ever on NBCSN (previously VERSUS and OLN). Of the 32 Stanley Cup Final games in network history, Games 1 and 2 of Canadiens-Lightning rank as the seventh and eighth-least watched — ahead of only Games 2 and 3 in the “bubble” last year and Games 1 and 2 of the 2006 and 2007 series, the two previous Cup finals to pit a Canadian team against a Sun Belt opponent.
It should be noted that the two-game average this year — 1.71 million with additional streaming data included — is dramatically higher than in 2006 (+96%) or 2007 (+153%). Compared to the previous Cup Final to involve a Canadian team, Vancouver against original six Boston in 2011, the NBCSN average is down 38% from the 2.74 million Versus averaged for Games 3 and 4.
If historically low, Game 2 delivered the second-largest NHL audience on cable since the league returned from hiatus nearly a year ago, behind only Game 7 of Islanders-Lightning in the third round (1.92M). It ranks seventh for the current postseason including games on NBC.*
For the night, Game 2 was no match for the competing NBA Western Conference Finals Game 6 on ESPN (5.85M) or the deciding Game 3 of the College World Series final on ESPN2 (1.67M). A common complaint about NBCSN during the network’s 16-year run with the NHL was that it lacked the familiariy — and drawing power — of ESPN and ESPN2. While this was not always true (NBCSN averaged more viewers in primetime than ESPN2 did last year), that the network trailed both on its final night carrying the league is perhaps fitting.
Locally, the first two games of the series have averaged a 10.5 rating in Tampa-St. Petersburg. In particular, Game 1 averaged a 10.6 and Game 2 a 10.3 — up 25% and 47% respectively from last year’s first two games in the “bubble” (8.5 and 7.0 respectively).
* Includes a Bruins-Islanders game on NBCSN that aired on NBC affiliates in the home markets.
[Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports, Ourand/Twitter 7.1]
