It’s all about numbers, which is why you will see the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins in the featured broadcast windows with the A-team announcers during the playoffs.
Not only are the teams national draws, but their hometown ratings are off the charts. The impact those local ratings will have on the national numbers makes NBC officials very happy, assuming both teams continue to win.
Game 1 of the Blackhawks-Minnesota series averaged 280,000 viewers on Comcast Sports Net Chicago Tuesday, with a peak of 418,000 during overtime. Those ratings figure to go up dramatically during the playoffs. Little wonder why NBC officials were relieved to see the Hawks pull out Game 1. Privately, of course.
As for Pittsburgh, the Penguins averaged a 12.56 local rating on Root Sports this year. It is the highest for any sports team in a local market since the Boston Red Sox pulled a 12.20 rating in 2007. Again, those numbers definitely will soar during the playoffs.
NBC Sports executive Sam Flood addressed Pittsburgh’s ratings power during a conference call Tuesday.
“You go to the Stanley Cup Final back-to-back; you win the Stanley Cup Finals, and you have a couple of the most marketable players in the game; your club is going to draw attention,” Flood said. “You know, market size doesn’t always drive ratings, sometimes it’s a passionate fan base and also stars that people are familiar with.
“You’re hear the name Crosby, you hear Malkin, you know what’s coming on the ice. And you know that it’s a pretty special thing to watch and people get can appreciate greatness.”
Beginning with the second round, the playoffs will be exclusively on NBC’s platforms. So NBC has plenty of reason to pull for the Blackhawks and Penguins, not to mention big-market draws like the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.
“If it’s a Chicago-Pittsburgh final, that’s a different number than a Montreal-Vancouver final,” Flood said.
Of course, if it is Ottawa-San Jose in the finals, all bets are off.
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For my Chicago readers, the regular season numbers are astounding, especially compared to what we saw back in the dark ages a few years ago.
From Comcast SportsNet Chicago:
Comcast SportsNet, the television home for the most games and most comprehensive coverage of the NHL Western Conference #1-seed Chicago Blackhawks (36-7-5, 77 pts. during the regular season, earning them the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best overall record), posted the highest Blackhawks final regular season TV ratings average in the history of Chicago regional sports television — a 5.38 household season average rating (approx. 187,482 households watching per game) — which is a 73% increase over last season’s 3.11 previous record final average (an increase of 79,183 more households tuning in per game this season).
In addition, Comcast SportsNet’s record-setting 5.38 Blackhawks regular season household average in the Chicago market this year is a 94% increase from the final season average two years ago (2.78) — a 121% increase from the final season average three years ago (2.44) — a 327% increase from the final season average four years ago (1.26) — and an astounding 754% increase from just five years ago (0.63). Source for all ratings information is provided by Nielsen Media Research.