Ov
via Versus:
VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the NHL, dropped the puck on its fifth year of coverage with the most-watched NHL opening night in network history with a total of 832,781 viewers tuning in for the Bruins/Capitals and Avalanche/Sharks games.
Locally, VERSUS was one of the top-rated cable networks in all four markets (Boston, Washington, D.C., Denver and San Jose).
"Despite DirecTV shutting out millions of hockey fans from seeing last night's games, VERSUS still garnered its best NHL regular season opening night ever," said Jamie Davis, President of VERSUS. "The momentum of this network has not slowed down at all and we're doing everything we can to reach an agreement with DirecTV to ensure that hockey fans won't continue to miss the terrific match-ups we have on our schedule all season long."
VERSUS' coverage returns on Monday, October 5, at 7 p.m. ET with a cross-Hudson River battle between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers and then again on Tuesday, October 6, at 7 p.m. ET when the Washington Capitals head to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.
Is this because of the publicity they’ve received due to the DirecTV fight? Or is it just coincidence, and further cause for them not to cave to DirecTV? Of course, DirecTV isn’t going to be caving anytime soon either.
Though I have to laugh at this:
Despite DirecTV shutting out millions of hockey fans from seeing last night’s games
If 832,781 viewers is the best Versus has ever done, there are not millions of hockey fans anywhere that were barred from seeing it. Unless they think every DirecTV subscriber is a hockey fan.
Yeah, didn’t they get like 2-3 million for the playoffs? Yes, that’s the playoffs, but this is the season premiere so these numbers are not that great.
Julia, as a sports fan, I can easily see my way to *several* million viewers in terms of total reach for a hockey game and still wind up with only 832K average viewers for the duration of the entire game. I watched about 20 minutes of last night’s action.
Whether at least 2 million out of DirecTV’s subscriber base are hockey fans is another story
Shouldnt it have read:
“Despite COMCAST shutting out millions of hockey fans from seeing last night’s games….”
Romo, no. It should only read that way in the DirecTV press releases
that number is huge.
you guys have to remember 2-3 million or more watched on CBC in Canada for Toronto vs Montreal…and another 700K to1 million watched the Montreal team on RDS(French speaking).
with the 830K here…that is a min combination of 3.5 million probably more like 4 million.
MLB and NBA get near nothing in Canada….
box office counts Canadian money….Networks check Canadian viewers for tv shows everynight.
the NHL is a big time league…that people forget that all 6 Canadian teams sold out every game last year..and have huge tv audiences.
All in all…830K on versus is big..and 4 million combined in both countries is a huge number….
is it possible People Meters affected this?
As a hockey fan, I see this as good news. The ratings for hockey seem to be growing since the lockout.
And Comcast did black out at least one game that I know of. You couldn’t get the Flyers game in Philly earlier tonight unless you subscribed to your cable through Comcast.
I for one am very upset about not getting Versus on Directv, I have no other choice but satellite because I live out in the country. I have contacted directv and versus and you get a different story from both. I think it a big bunch of bs, I have nhl center ice and I pay extra for the sports package. I guess I will have to keep calling directv. We had the same problem with one of our local stations last year and they both did finally agree. Oh well hockey still rocks!!!
The only reason to watch VS is to drool over Matt Iseman on Sports Soup. The dude is HOT!
Go Caps
I’m a HUGE hockey fan, but i don’t start watching until after the super bowl. regular season is too long!!