The NHL's marketers and Commissioner Gary Bettman were universally slammed for moving the NHL All-Star game to midweek in Dallas. US television ratings for the Versus broadcast of the game & the surrounding festivities were disasterous - down 76% compared to 2004. NHL bashers took delight in pointing out that reruns of the Andy Griffith show had 85% more viewers than the game. (Although ratings in Canada were up - indicating that the NHL's US All-Star TV troubles had more to do with Versus than the timing of the game.)
It turns out that some Americans do like to watch the NHL on television, as noted by Mark Cuban of "Blog Maverick" fame. (Thanks to Offwing Opinion for the pointer.)
The NHL on NBC beat College Basketball on CBS, 1.1 to .70 Is College Basketball doomed ? Does no one care anymore about college basketball ? Is the NHL on a resurgent climb ? (This just in, NHL was up again to 1.3 on NBC) Is NBC just really good ? Are both great sports in a crowded market ? Stay tuned
Nobody has Versus in the US, that's the problem. I have 90+ channels in my cable package and I don't have Versus. I would watch the NHL if I could!
Posted by: Brian | February 25, 2007 at 06:55 PM