There is no clear evidence yet of a “Four Nations” bump, but the NHL returned from a two-week break with double-digit gains over last year.
Saturday’s Capitals-Penguins and Wild-Red Wings NHL regular season games averaged 1.1 million and 944,000 viewers respectively on ABC, up 15 and 21 percent respectively from last year (Rangers-Flyers: 957K; Blues-Red Wings: 779K), but a mixed bag compared to the previous ABC doubleheader two weeks earlier (Golden Knights-Bruins: 1.3M; Lightning-Red Wings: 934K).
The games were the first after a two-week break for the Four Nations Face-Off, which delivered the five largest audiences of the NHL season — including the largest audience on record for an NHL-sanctioned game as 9.3 million watched the Canada-United States final.
On Sunday, TNT and truTV combined to average 560,000 for Rangers-Penguins — up 6% from Flyers-Penguins last year and the network’s largest audience of the season, excluding Four Nations and the Winter Classic. Oilers-Capitals led in with 318,000, up 20% from Lightning-Devils a year ago. TNT had not previously carried any Sunday games this season.
Any bump from the “Four Nations Face-Off” would likely take some time to become apparent, but it is worth noting that international competitions generally do not result in any meaningful increase in viewership for domestic leagues. After the 2010 Canada-United States Olympic men’s hockey final attracted nearly 28 million viewers on NBC — in an era before out-of-home viewing — NHL viewership was largely unchanged from prior weeks.
Note: Nielsen as of this month expanded its out-of-home viewing sample to cover 100 percent of markets (up from two-thirds previously). As a result, viewership figures will generally compare favorably not only to past years, but even to past weeks.
