NEW YORK: The National Hockey League is getting more attention online and on TV. The NHL said the ratings for both games on NBC over the weekend were up over last year. The Saturday Chicago-Nashville match was up 8 percent with a 1.3. Sunday’s Phoenix-Detroit game was up 30 percent over the same date last year with a 1.3. Through four games over two weekends of the NHL Stanley Cup Quarterfinal Playoffs on NBC, overnight ratings were up 8 percent over the first four games of 2009.
Online, the franchise’s revenues are up 50 percent over last year. NHL.com also set a single-day record for both unique visitors and video starts on April 25. Both games that weekend went into overtime. Through the first 12 days of the playoffs, unique visitors to NHL.com increased by 33 percent, video starts by 141 percent and mobile page views by 167 percent.
NBC has shared the hockey franchise broadcast rights with cable sports net Versus (formerly Outdoor Life Network) since 2006. Seven Stanley Cup games that year average a 1.8 rating with 2.8 million viewers. In 2007, five games averaged a 1.2 with just 1.76 million viewers. Six games in the 2008 pulled in a 2.6 with 4.48 million viewers.
From 1995 through 1999, Fox carried the Stanley Cup coverage. It reached what’s now a 15-year high in 1997 when Fox carried only one game that netted a 4.0 rating with 6.37 million viewers.
ABC had broadcast rights in 2000-02, then shared them with ESPN 2003-04. Ratings fell steadily as more games were televised until 2008.
