The Maple Leafs currently sit with a 10-13-5 record, good for 13th in the Eastern Conference, and that shows in the team's TV ratings, as combined numbers for the team's games on all Rogers Communications-connected networks "are down" 30% through Nov. 21, according to David Shoalts of the GLOBE & MAIL. In 16 games carried on the CBC, Sportsnet or City-TV networks, the "average audience for Leafs games was 863,825 viewers, down from 1,226,264 in the same period last year, when 14 games were shown." The difference is that in the first seven weeks of the '14-15 season, the team was "still a playoff contender, unlike this season when they are in rebuilding mode." The drop in viewership also "means a corresponding dip in advertising revenue for Rogers." Revenue from the net's C$5.2B national TV deal with the NHL "failed to meet the company’s expectations in the first season of the contract," although CEO Guy Laurence said that the company made a 10% profit on the NHL. Shoalts writes the second year of the deal "is off to an even worse start." The downturn in Leafs viewership also was "bad news for Bell Media and TSN, as the rival network still has the rights to about 26 regional Leafs games, although its costs for them are not as high" as Rogers’. In five games on TSN in the first seven weeks of the season, the Leafs "drew an average audience of 425,260, down 215,040," or 34%, from last year (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/11).
