The NHL’s first game of the season hit a six-year low, but still did well for NBCSN.
Wednesday’s Blues-Penguins NHL Opening Night game had a 0.50 rating and 872,000 viewers on NBCSN, down 6% in ratings and 4% in viewership from Blues-Blackhawks last year (0.53, 905K) and down 12% and 6% respectively from Rangers-Blackhawks in 2015 (0.57, 925K). It had 904,000 viewers with streaming included.
The Bruins’ overtime win, which peaked with 997,000 viewers from 9:30-9:45 PM ET, was the least-watched opening night game since Flyers-Bruins in 2011 (874K) — even with streaming included. With that said, it was the sixth-most watched NHL regular season game ever on the NBC family of networks.
The game faced greater competition than last year, facing the National League Wild Card on TBS (4.6M) and a stronger-than-usual WNBA game on ESPN (902K). Last year’s game faced neither.
Later in the night, Flyers-Sharks drew 462,000 viewers — down 5% from Kings-Sharks last year (484K) but up 17% from Sharks-Kings in 2015 (396K). Including streaming, it had 477,000.
[Wknd. numbers via Programming Insider 10.5, NBC Sports PR/Twitter 10.5a, 10.5b, 10.5c]
