By almost all accounts, the NHL has been fantastic to watch this year. The flow of the game is much better, there are exciting young players, and scoring is up, and those things are great. But ratings? I knew it was bad, but… I didn’t know it was this bad. Some factoids from a Darren Rovell article at ESPN.com…
• OLN averaged 117,000 viewers for their NHL games this year.
• In 2003-2004, ESPN’s games brought in 416,000, while ESPN2 games brought in 209,000.
• The Heads-Up Poker Championship, the lead-in to hockey, more than doubled the ratings for playoff hockey on NBC.
• More people watched WNBA games on ESPN2 last year.
It’s one thing to have low ratings… it’s quite another to be outdrawn by the WNBA. The WNBA, man. Let that sink in for a minute. ABC could broadcoast 2 hours of Hubie Brown reading aloud from an Ayn Rand novel after seven apple martinis, and I’m more likely to watch that than a WNBA game.
I don’t know what this means for the future of hockey. I hope most clubs were at least profitable this year, under the new CBA. I hope this was anticipated. You’d have to think that they were prepared for pretty low ratings. But if their viewership doesn’t start to grow, I think you can expect the NHL to be covered on SportsCenter less and less, and get less general mainstream media coverage in general. It’ll become the kind of thing that gets mentioned in the second half of SportsCenter broadcasts, after “The Ultimate Highlight,” and Stu Scott’s super-dope poetry jam.
My suggestion to improve ratings? Players mic’d at all times, and Brian Bellows always hovering somewhere nearby. 114 viewings later, and I still can’t enough.
Spaceno93 Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Hockey fan here so just to comment -
The main problem is it’s OLN. Who watchs OLN? When it was on ESPN/ESPN2 it was adverstized during Sportscenter and other programs. The problem now is that no-one watches OLN to begin with.
Hockey is hard enough to follow on TV (better in person) as it is. Now, when you really don’t know the games that are going to be on it’s a waste.
WNBA, while I agree if you lose to it you have problems, at least gets prime networks.
Fightclub3230 Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 6:30 pm
I watched hockey this year and loved it. I agree with Spaceno93. Hockey was actually one of the biggest attractions on OLN and I imagine if you went with the numbers as a percentage of the people who actually got the network, it’d be higher than when it was ESPN2.
tony Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 7:54 pm
As another hockey fan, I have to agree with the above, though it’s not so much knowing “when” games will be on, but reminding yourself what channel OLN is on your cable. Or having OLN at all.
Even if you clear those hurdles, you’d better be a fan of Detroit, NYR, Colorado, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or New Jersey, or a die-hard “I’ll watch any game, any time” hockey fan, or you’re screwed.
And ESPN could already give a shit about the NHL now that it’s not on their network.
mrmom61 Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:51 pm
114 times later and I still cant get enough titfucking.
Sandy Mac Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:01 pm
I can’t believe you pulled out the Bellows clip. Kevin Stevens should be in the Hall of Fame for that alone, and you bang on the buck about miking the players. Fuck OLN, HBO will show it if the players can be raw. Of course that may hinder the NHL from developing a younger audience, who, they should really be catering to.
tony Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:03 pm
I’ve long believed that the NFL should have an “all access” game of the week on HBO, doing the same for the NHL would be awesome.
And Kevin Stevens *was* going to be inducted to the HOF for that clip, but he couldn’t decide if he wanted to be inducted as a crack addicted john, or as a hockey player.
cotton Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I believe the drink you referred to is called an “appletini,” sir.
FormerLightningEmployee Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 6:19 am
I worked for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 1999-2001, and before that, I worked for a Minor League Hockey Team in Texas (Sales & Marketing). And truth be told, I barely followed it then. I am born and raised in the southern part of the U.S. and the only sports I follow are Baseball, the NFL, College Football, College Basketball and the NBA. That’s it.
I guess my point is, I worked in Hockey and I still could care less.
jerloma Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 8:27 am
I don’t claim to be a hockey fan but I can guarantee you that if NFL games were on OLN, I’d know damn sure what channel it was.
Warren Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I’m a little surprised (well not really) to find this article on hockey in the middle of 2 very exciting semi-final series between 4 quick, hard-hitting teams. Who cares that not everyone south of the border loves hockey. Up here, most of us don’t get the fascination with watching cars drive in circles for hours. That’s what makes us all unique. I just hope people give these games a shot and watch some great hockey. The less clutching and grabbing, the better the games. No I see they don’t need fighting in the games. It’s not necessary. Nor is it necessary to have every guy 6 foot 4, 225 pounds. Let the skilled guys play. Regardless of size.
Oh, and since hockey is our number one sport up here, maybe the NHL should consider giving us back some teams. If the New York area can accomodate 4 teams, then Toronto can support one more. Bring back Winnipeg, maybe Quebec, and try one in either Sasketchewan (where the Blues were going to be moved to in the 80’s) or the East coast.
Just my thoughts.
Oilers and Canes in the finals. Go Whale!
nirwin Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Yes, but NFL games wouldn’t be on OLN, that’s the point. And if they were, their ratings would be down…that’s also the point.
This is also, I would like to point out, the NHL’s own damn fault. Taking the lockout out of the equation, they’re the ones who saw it in their infinite wisdom to pull hockey off of ESPN because OLN offered them more money. This was a completely boneheaded move. If you leave it on ESPN, you get more money in the long run because people will be watching it and will hear about it. Now, during the regular season SportsCenter shows like three highlights a night at most, they don’t have their NHL highlight show anymore (NHL 2night, I belive it was), they give it no publicity, it’s on a network that not everybody gets and many people who do don’t know that they get. Any idiot could see that this is not ideal, but apparently Gary Bettman isn’t just any idiot.
ESPN only follows the sports that they have on their air, pretty much. They cover the NFL in a supremely ridiculously over-the-top fashion that I would have to make another post about to cover fully. The NBA coverage went way up after they got the rights to that. It’s just mind-boggling that you wouldn’t want your struggling league on that network and wouldn’t see that it will get absolutely no coverage if you leave.
Dave's Football Blog Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
When OLN becomes Versus in June, it’ll be loaded down with sports that have cult followings at best — Hockey, Arena Football, Cycling, Yachting, etc. Before too long, they’ll be balls deep in Indoor Soccer and Pro Viperball. It’s going to be an interesting network…