NBC drew 5.65 million viewers for Penguins-Predators on Monday from 8:09-11:09pm ET, marking the second-best Stanley Cup Final Game 4 audience on record, behind only Blackhawks-Bruins in ’13, which aired on a Wednesday night (6.46 million viewers). Monday’s game was up 34% from Penguins-Sharks Game 4 last year, which also aired on a Monday. Game 4 in ’15 and ’14 aired on NBCSN (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
RING MY BELL: Bell Media and the NFL today announced a multiyear rights extension that makes Bell the exclusive broadcast partner of the NFL in Canada. The new deal also features expanded digital opportunities, such as syndication rights for NFL highlights in Canada, as well as expanded footage and programming rights to bolster Bell Media's non-game NFL content. The agreement includes the "Thursday Night Football" package, which will air starting in '17 on TSN and CTV Two for the first time and will return to RDS (Bell Media).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST? FS1's Skip Bayless said he does not know how Charles Barkley's "bosses at TNT are allowing" him to continually talk up the NHL postseason while talking down about the NBA playoffs. TNT pays a "ton of money for the rights to these games, and I'm assuming they pay Charles a ton of money to talk about these games and promote these games." Bayless: "I have to watch him invading Wayne Gretzky's press conference to campaign for the hockey playoffs against the pro basketball playoffs?” ("Undisputed," FS1, 6/6).
