NHL All-Star Audience Down In Canada, Prompting Questions From Rogers Media Exec

Canadian TV ratings for the NHL All-Star Game are down, as Sunday's game "drew 1.479 million viewers to CBC, nearly one million viewers less than the last all-star game in 2012 when 2.454 million people watched and 2011 when 2.363 million tuned in," according to Kevin McGran of the TORONTO STAR. Rogers President of Sportsnet & NHL Properties Scott Moore said, "Frankly it's a little mystifying. Somebody else asked me if I have an explanation and I don’t really. I just think they (the numbers) seem wrong." McGran notes the ratings for the rest of the weekend "were also down significantly compared to previous years." Moore: "We've been talking to the ratings agency to see if the hardcore sports viewing is being measured correctly. We've seen disturbing trends in sports viewing in Canada in general that don’t seem to match up with what’s happening elsewhere in the world. We've seen a decrease in CFL ratings (a TSN property). Numeris is telling us hockey ratings the last four years have been on a downslide which we think bucks what we’re seeing in other research we do" (TORONTO STAR, 1/28).

NOT MUCH BETTER IN THE U.S.: NBCSN drew 1.19 million viewers for the NHL ASG on Sunday from 5:00-8:00pm ET, marking the event’s lowest figure in the U.S. since ’09. The league did not play an ASG in ’14 and ’10 due to the Winter Games, and was without the event in ’13 due to the lockout. Sunday afternoon's game did not go head-to-head with the Pro Bowl on ESPN, but did have competition from "Sunday NFL Countdown," which drew 2.29 million viewers from 6:00-8:00pm (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).