After a fairly unimpressive regular season, the NHL’s new media rights deal is starting to pay ratings dividends in the playoffs.
The first two nights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 610,000 viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, up 15% from the equivalent nights in 2019, the previous postseason under the league’s normal format.
Tuesday’s triple-overtime Penguins-Rangers Game 1 led the way with a 0.6 rating and 1.04 million viewers on ESPN, the largest audience on record for a first round opener on cable (dating back to 1994). Viewership increased 35% from last year’s equivalent window, per ESPN.
The previous night, Bruins-Hurricanes Game 1 averaged a 0.45 and 857,000 (+15%) — trailing only Penguins-Rangers as the most-watched first round opener on cable in the past 20 years. Prior to this year, the 20-year mark was 844,000 for Penguins-Flyers on NBCSN in 2012.
In a testament to the gap between broadcast and cable, three first round openers last postseason topped Tuesday’s cable record — all of them weekend games on the NBC broadcast network. This year, there are no Stanley Cup playoff games planned for broadcast until the Stanley Cup Final.
ESPN also drew 626,000 for Blues-Wild in Monday’s nightcap. On ESPN2, Lightning-Maple Leafs drew 466,000 (+115%) and Kings-Oilers 352,000 on Monday; Capitals-Panthers drew 348,000 (+32%) and Stars-Flames 261,000 on Tuesday (+6%).
Due to the long-running Penguins-Rangers game, Tuesday’s Predators-Avalanche Game 1 aired mostly on ESPNU and averaged 171,000 (including a half-hour of coverage on ESPN).
The double-digit increase to start the postseason is a reversal from the regular season. ABC’s ten-game average of 857,000 viewers was the lowest ever for the NHL on broadcast television. On cable, ESPN and TNT combined to average 383,000 for 69 exclusive regular season windows — up 35% from last season’s 88-game schedule on NBCSN (283K), which consisted primarily of non-exclusive games. Compared to the 21 games last season that aired exclusively on NBCSN, this year’s cable average declined 21% from 487,000.
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR, ShowBuzz Daily, Programming Insider 5.3, 5.4]
