NBC Sports Sees Bounce-Back Season For NHL Game Viewership

NHL regular-season viewership bounced back during the ‘18-19 campaign on NBC Sports, with viewership across TV and digital platforms up 2% from last season. NBC, NBCSN and NBC Digital combined to average 424,000 this season, rebounding from 417,000 last season -- NBC Sports’ lowest mark under the current media-rights deal, which began prior to the ’11-12 season. Two seasons ago, that figure was 474,000 viewers. Games on NBC this season averaged a total audience delivery (TAD) of 1.3 million viewers, up 2% from ’17-18. That increase was buoyed by the best Winter Classic audience since ’15. NBCSN had a TAD of 313,000 viewers for a record number of games in ‘18-19, up 4%. For NBC’ digital platforms, there was an average minute audience of 10,700 viewers this season, marking a new record and up 36% from ’17-18. For games on NBC and NBCSN, Pittsburgh led all markets with a 1.3 local rating, followed by Buffalo (1.2), Las Vegas (1.0), St. Louis (0.9) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (0.7) (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).

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THE SHOCK OF THE LIGHTNING: In Tampa, Ernest Hooper reports the Lightning had the team's "highest-rated season ever" on FS Sun, averaging a 2.34 local rating in the Tampa-St. Pete market over 70 game telecasts. That is up 28% over '17-18 (1.83 rating for 75 games). The Lightning have now had six consecutive seasons of viewership growth, which FS Sun Dir of Media Relations Eric Esteban said is a "trend you don't tend to see." The team also "drew record numbers during its March run towards a record-tying 62 wins." March was the "highest-rated month of Lightning hockey ever" on the RSN (2.93). Live streams for Lightning games also were up 38% year-over-year on Fox Sports digital outlets (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/9).