NHL viewership continues to fall well short of last year; NASCAR hit a second-straight multi-year high; and more.
NHL sees another round of steep declines in week two
Wednesday’s Sabres-Penguins NHL regular season game averaged a 0.28 rating and 512,000 viewers across TNT (0.23, 422K) and truTV (0.05, 90K), down 32% in ratings and 27% in viewership from Penguins-Red Wings last year (0.41, 699K), but up 40% and 51% respectively from Flyers-Panthers in 2022 (0.20, 338K). (Updated to include the truTV simulcast.) The Bruins-Avalanche nightcap drew a 0.16 and 263,000 on TNT, with figures for truTV not immediately available.
The prior night, ESPN averaged a 0.21 and 417,000 for Wild-Blues, down 29% and 24% respectively from Lightning-Sabres a year ago (0.29, 552K). The Flyers-Oilers nightcap had 333,000 (-35%).
All eight games on ESPN and TNT that can be compared to last season have declined.
NASCAR scores three-year high at Charlotte “Roval”
NASCAR Cup Series racing from the Charlotte “Roval” averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.42 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, marking the largest audience for the race in three years and an increase of 6% over last year.
Kyle Larson’s win, which peaked with 3.1 million viewers, was the second-straight race to hit a multi-year high, joining the previous week’s outing at Talladega.
The corresponding Xfinity Series race at the track averaged a 0.49 and 834,000 on CW, down 26% from last year on NBC (0.7, 1.12M).
Plus: NBA preseason, Premier League, ESPN
— Last Sunday’s Warriors-Kings NBA preseason game averaged 534,000 viewers on ESPN, up slightly from the same matchup in the same window last year (526K) and the largest audience of the preseason thus far (pending full results from Thursday and Friday). Timberwolves-Knicks led in with 435,000.
— Heading into this weekend’s play, English Premier League coverage was averaging 561,000 viewers across NBC and USA Network (including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen), up 4% from the same point last year.
— The ESPN networks grossed 533 billion minutes of consumption for the 12-month period ending in September, the company said this week, up 7% from the same point last year and the highest since 2016.
