Graphic: NHL/ESPN
The 2023 NHL postseason kicked off Monday night on ESPN, and according to Sports Media Watch, viewership was up double-digits from last season.
Per Sports Media Watch, Monday’s opening night of the playoffs averaged 672,000 viewers on ESPN and ESPN2, up 17% from last year. Game 1 of Panthers-Bruins led the way with a 1.07 million viewers on ESPN, up 25% from Bruins-Hurricanes last year (857K) and the largest audience on record for a first round opener on cable.
Game 1 of Islanders-Hurricanes on ESPN2 averaged 642,000 viewers, up 38% from Lightning-Maple Leafs a year ago (466K).
However, not all games were up. The Kings-Oilers late-night game averaged 483,000 on ESPN — down 23% from Blues-Wild last year (626K). Compared to last year’s first round opener between the same two teams, which aired on ESPN2, viewership unsurprisingly increased from 352,000.
NCAA’S FROZEN FOUR
The NCAA’s Frozen Four also saw a significant rise in viewership. In the semi-finals, Quinnipiac-Michigan averaged a 0.23 and 435,000 and Minnesota-Boston U a 0.14 and 279,000 in last Thursday’s semifinals — both up sharply from last year’s equivalent games (Denver-Michigan: 0.13, 255K; Minnesota State-Minnesota: 169K). Both games this year aired on ESPN2, while last year’s late game aired on ESPNU.
The Quinnipiac-Minnesota title game on ESPN2 averaged a 0.40 and 808,000, up 90% in ratings and 100% in viewership from last year (Denver-Minnesota State: 0.21, 404K) and the largest audience for the men’s hockey final since 2011.
NHL REGULAR SEASON
The bad news for the NHL and its national broadcast partners is that viewership took a small step back during the regular season. According to the Sports Business Journal, the NHL averaged 583,000 viewers for live games on Disney networks this season and 364,000 on TNT. The Disney viewership is down 2% from last year, and the TNT viewership is up 1%. However, that step back can be attributed to those networks airing nearly 50% more games than last year.
According to Awful Announcing, the package of ABC games, which increased to 15 from nine last season, averaged a million viewers and was up 19% from the 2021-22 season.
TNT aired 61 games this year, compared to 50 last season. Unlike in 2021-22, many of this year’s games were blacked out in the local markets of the teams playing. The games that did not include local blackouts were up 9% from last season’s overall average.