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Hockey on TNT

T

TheBigA

What an amazing night of hockey on TNT: Two Game 7s, and both were upsets. First, the Florida Panthers beat the Boston Bruins, ending a history-making season in overtime.


Then the expansion Seattle Kraken beat the Stanley Cup champs Colorado Avalanche. I'm probably one of the few people watching. But the Warner Media networks have had both the Stanley Cup and the NBA playoffs for the last two weeks. It's a big deal for them!

 
With all the upsets, is this the Stanley Cup playoffs, or the NCAA Men's Division 1 basketball tournament?

Also, I believe TNT is exclusively carrying the Stanley Cup finals this year.
 
TheBigA said:
What an amazing night of hockey on TNT: Two Game 7s, and both were upsets. First, the Florida Panthers beat the Boston Bruins, ending a history-making season in overtime.


Then the expansion Seattle Kraken beat the Stanley Cup champs Colorado Avalanche. I'm probably one of the few people watching. But the Warner Media networks have had both the Stanley Cup and the NBA playoffs for the last two weeks. It's a big deal for them!

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I was watching as well and those were two excellent games!
 
Dejected Bruins fan here, still trying to recover. I did enjoy the Kraken's superb effort against the Avalanche in the late game, though, and will definitely be watching tonight's final Game 7 of the first round between the Rangers and Devils.

I've been watching via YouTube TV, which doesn't carry NESN, the Bruins' RSN, but I noticed while visiting my brother to watch Game 6 a few nights ago that NESN had its own telecast available. I believe this is allowed only in the first round. Do both the home and away teams get to do that? I can't imagine it benefits TNT, as it leaves the national telecast with only neutrals and out-of-market fans of the participating teams for an audience.
 
CTListener said:
Dejected Bruins fan here, still trying to recover.
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Stars fan here, but you have my sympathy; horrible way to end a record shattering season. You guys were a minute away from advancing and it all fell apart.🫣🤯😭
CTListener said:
I've been watching via YouTube TV, which doesn't carry NESN, the Bruins' RSN, but I noticed while visiting my brother to watch Game 6 a few nights ago that NESN had its own telecast available. I believe this is allowed only in the first round. Do both the home and away teams get to do that? I can't imagine it benefits TNT, as it leaves the national telecast with only neutrals and out-of-market fans of the participating teams for an audience.
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The RSN broadcasts are first round only, and are not exclusive so viewers would have a choice between them and the TBS/TNT versions.
 
CTListener said:
I've been watching via YouTube TV, which doesn't carry NESN, the Bruins' RSN, but I noticed while visiting my brother to watch Game 6 a few nights ago that NESN had its own telecast available. I believe this is allowed only in the first round.
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correct

CTListener said:
Do both the home and away teams get to do that?
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yup
Big thing if you have the 2nd game of the night and the first game runs long. You can view it (along with the pregame) on the RSN with the local broadcasters that you are use to hearing
CTListener said:
I can't imagine it benefits TNT, as it leaves the national telecast with only neutrals and out-of-market fans of the participating teams for an audience.
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folks who don't get the RSN's can see the game on TNT
 
Mr Tony said:
folks who don't get the RSN's can see the game on TNT
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Right, but the RSN viewers cut into TNT's ratings for the same games. Fans who have a choice, and have their local team involved in the game, can and usually do watch their local RSN telecast -- money out of TNT's pocket. That's why I can't figure out why the NHL does it this way. When MLB's postseason starts, the RSNs have no more games; they all go to MLB's national TV partners, from the wild card round through the World Series.
 
CTListener said:
Right, but the RSN viewers cut into TNT's ratings for the same games. Fans who have a choice, and have their local team involved in the game, can and usually do watch their local RSN telecast -- money out of TNT's pocket. That's why I can't figure out why the NHL does it this way. When MLB's postseason starts, the RSNs have no more games; they all go to MLB's national TV partners, from the wild card round through the World Series.
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The NBA also does this. Not only that, but first-round playoff games also air on NBA-TV, and are blacked out in the teams' home markets. If you can't get the local RSN, you're stuck with radio. That's not the case when the games air on ESPN or TNT.
 
The reason why the first round of NBA and NHL playoffs are shared between the national and local TV is to give the local TV rights holder a little playoff cash before the next round starts. Disney and Warner Brothers Discovery are not losing any money. Remember they get subscriber fees along with advertising revenue.
 
CTListener said:
Dejected Bruins fan here, still trying to recover. I did enjoy the Kraken's superb effort against the Avalanche in the late game, though, and will definitely be watching tonight's final Game 7 of the first round between the Rangers and Devils.
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What do the TV ratings look like? I would wager that the Conference finals could produce record LOW ratings. The East will feature Florida vs Carolina. The West will be Vegas against Dallas or Seattle. Seattle and Vegas are recent expansion franchises. The high profile teams like Toronto, Boston, NY Rangers and even defending champs Colorado are all out. Is anyone still watching? There's no continuity with TNT and ESPN splitting coverage on the "same" series.

It seems like the hype about how difficult it is to win a Stanley Cup has been disproved. Vegas almost won in its first year and Seattle is playing their second season. Mediocre teams have a better chance of winning a Championship in Hockey. That's not true for Baseball, Football or Basketball. 16 teams make the playoffs in Hockey and a few fluky goals can bring a team a Stanley Cup...
 
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tbolt909 said:
What do the TV ratings look like? I would wager that the Conference finals could produce record LOW ratings. The East will feature Florida vs Carolina. The West will be Vegas against Dallas or Seattle. Seattle and Vegas are recent expansion franchises. The high profile teams like Toronto, Boston, NY Rangers and even defending champs Colorado are all out. Is anyone still watching? There's no continuity with TNT and ESPN splitting coverage on the "same" series.

It seems like the hype about how difficult it is to win a Stanley Cup has been disproved. Vegas almost won in its first year and Seattle is playing their second season. Mediocre teams have a better chance of winning a Championship in Hockey. That's not true for Baseball, Football or Basketball. 16 teams make the playoffs in Hockey and a few fluky goals can bring a team a Stanley Cup...
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I might have agreed with you when the prelim series used to be 3 out of 5 but now that every series is 4 of 7 there is virtually no chance that a "mediocre" team can advance. And while it is somewhat true "a few fluky goals" can win a game there is much less chance that the same would win a series. As we saw in the playoffs already it is usually the goalie that determines who wins or loses. Just like a pitcher in baseball.

I suggest Vegas vs Dallas is even money but either will lose if they play Carolina - the best team in the league right now.
 
landtuna said:
I might have agreed with you when the prelim series used to be 3 out of 5 but now that every series is 4 of 7 there is virtually no chance that a "mediocre" team can advance. And while it is somewhat true "a few fluky goals" can win a game there is much less chance that the same would win a series. As we saw in the playoffs already it is usually the goalie that determines who wins or loses. Just like a pitcher in baseball.

I suggest Vegas vs Dallas is even money but either will lose if they play Carolina - the best team in the league right now.
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Perhaps, but Florida just barely made the playoffs. Boston was heavily favoured to beat them. Hockey is still more random than the other sports. My guess is that the ratings are extremely low...
 
tbolt909 said:
Perhaps, but Florida just barely made the playoffs. Boston was heavily favoured to beat them. Hockey is still more random than the other sports. My guess is that the ratings are extremely low...
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Doesn't matter. They'd be low in comparison to the other sports even if the Bruins, the Avs, the Oilers and the Leafs were in the conference finals. Through the roof in Canada, but about the same in the U.S. as they will be starting this week with the Panthers, Hurricanes, Stars and Knights. The NHL in the U.S. is still very regional, very home-market centered.

Connor McDavid is a ridiculous talent, but he's not a transcendent Michael Jordan/Tom Brady-type figure who would get people in Omaha or Albuquerque to watch the NHL if the Oilers had advanced to the conference final instead of Vegas. The four very efficient teams that are in this year's semis will produce tight, exciting games, because the league has figured out how to build its game around speed and skill while still retaining defense (unlike, for the most part, the NBA). The unpredictability of the playoffs year after year is, to me, a big part of my continuing fandom, even when my own favorite team is the victim.

Is the failure of the NHL to become something more than a sport with fanatical home-city support in the U.S. something that may leave the league without a national TV outlet at some point? I don't think so, so I don't worry about your gloom-and-doom "guess." Even if the league winds up off OTA TV completely, I'll still be a fan and will subscribe to whatever services I need to subscribe to to watch games.
 
tbolt909 said:
Hockey is still more random than the other sports. My guess is that the ratings are extremely low...
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I submit basketball (NBA) is, by far, the most random major sport.

Agree that the ratings will stink. Very few fans of the "major" teams will take any interest in these Johnny-Come-Lately's.
 
TheBigA said:
Checking cable TV ratings for Monday May 15:

The #1 original telecast was the NHL conference semi-finals on ESPN between Seattle and Dallas. This was Game 7, and Dallas won.

SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Monday 5.15.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals UPDATED | Showbuzz Daily

showbuzzdaily.com showbuzzdaily.com

Having said that, less than 3 million watched. But it was more than the #2 show, which was WWE wrestling on USA.
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No NBA competition on a light sports night, but that's still a pretty good number for a what was essentially quarterfinal match-up with no history and little star power. I'm curious to know what the networks that are carrying the NHL playoffs consider satisfactory ratings. I'd imagine they're happy with the demographics, which skew younger than most of the other cable programming listed, with the notable exception of WWE.
 
CTListener said:
No NBA competition on a light sports night, but that's still a pretty good number
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Going back a few days for NBA competition, you see the difference, with over 8 million watching the Lakers & Warriors on ESPN, 5 million watching the Knicks & Heat, earlier on ESPN, and slightly over a million watching NHL on TNT. Some of that loss may be TNT.

SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Friday 5.12.2023 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals UPDATED | Showbuzz Daily

showbuzzdaily.com showbuzzdaily.com

I wonder if the sports audience is really aware of how much PBP sports is on Turner, with NBA, MLB, and NHL.
 
TheBigA said:
Going back a few days for NBA competition, you see the difference, with over 8 million watching the Lakers & Warriors on ESPN, 5 million watching the Knicks & Heat, earlier on ESPN, and slightly over a million watching NHL on TNT. Some of that loss may be TNT.
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No surprise. That's about the number I'd expect, as the NBA playoffs are a solid second only to the NFL when it comes to all team sports' postseasons, with MLB third and the NHL fourth. I wouldn't expect Stars-Kraken to pick up more than a couple of million viewers just because there's no basketball game on at the same time, especially since so many fans of NBA basketball have no interest in ice hockey whatsoever. They probably watched non-sports programming on Monday night, or a regular-season baseball game on an RSN or via streaming, or didn't watch TV at all.

My question, though, is whether the rights holders are OK with the current ratings at this point in the contract with the NHL. Where would they like to see the numbers come renewal decision time, and are those expectations realistic -- or even possible -- given the limited overall appeal of ice hockey on the national level?
 
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