The return of a full season of NHL games led to strong numbers for NBC and NBCSN. Regular-season games on NBCSN averaged 351,000 viewers over 88 telecasts in ’13-14, down 10% from the lockout-shortened ’12-13 campaign (57 games), but still the net’s best figure on record for a full season. This season was up 6% from the last full season in ’11-12 and up 1% from the previous record of 348,000 viewers in ’10-11. The audience for last year’s lockout-shortened schedule was the NHL’s best on cable TV since ESPN and ESPN2 combined to average 474,000 viewers in ’93-94. Meanwhile, NBC had its best NHL audience since acquiring rights prior to the ’05-06 season. NBC averaged 1.68 million viewers for its regular-season games, up 19% from last season and topping the net’s previous high of 1.62 million viewers in ’10-11. The NHL average on NBC this season also is the league’s best on broadcast TV since ABC averaged 2.0 million viewers in ’01-02.
|
NHL REGULAR-SEASON AUDIENCE TREND ON BROADCAST TV
|
|
YEAR
|
NETWORK
|
GAMES
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
'13-14
|
NBC
|
13
|
1,683
|
|
'12-13*
|
NBC
|
13
|
1,473
|
|
'11-12
|
NBC
|
12
|
1,580
|
|
'10-11
|
NBC
|
11
|
1,621
|
|
'09-10
|
NBC
|
10
|
1,560
|
|
'08-09
|
NBC
|
10
|
1,530
|
|
'07-08^
|
NBC
|
10
|
1,400
|
|
'06-07
|
NBC
|
9
|
1,344
|
|
'05-06
|
NBC
|
6
|
1,376
|
|
'04-05
|
NHL Lockout-Season Cancelled
|
|
'03-04
|
ABC
|
5
|
1,547
|
|
'02-03
|
ABC
|
5
|
1,656
|
|
'01-02
|
ABC
|
5
|
1,999
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NHL REGULAR-SEASON AUDIENCE TREND ON CABLE TV
|
|
SEASON
|
NETWORK
|
GAMES
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
'13-14
|
NBCSN
|
88
|
351
|
|
'12-13*
|
NBCSN
|
57
|
392
|
|
'11-12
|
NBCSN
|
90
|
332
|
|
'10-11
|
NBCSN
|
53
|
348
|
|
'09-10
|
NBCSN
|
52
|
297
|
|
'08-09
|
NBCSN
|
54
|
318
|
|
'07-08
|
NBCSN
|
56
|
272
|
|
'06-07
|
NBCSN
|
58
|
212
|
|
'05-06
|
NBCSN
|
56
|
162
|
|
'04-05
|
NHL Lockout-Season Cancelled
|
|
'03-04
|
ESPN2
|
n/a
|
209
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES: * = Lockout-shortened season (no Winter Classic). ^ = First season with Winter Classic.
