Multichannel News has a piece today noting that Versus had an average of 325,000 viewers in its first two post-Winter Olympics NHL games vs. an average of 283,000 for the previous 40 NHL games on the network. And they attribute it to a Winter Olympics "bounce".
I'm always very leery about assigning cause and effect to ratings, particularly with such a small sample size.
I wasn't able to figure out which two games the piece was referring to, maybe hockey fans can help me out. Were they two relatively popular teams? Or were the two games just on highly watched nights?
Update: Robert, who's paying a lot more attention than I have been notes that Tampa / Philadelphia on 3/2 averaged 257,000 viewers and Washington / Buffalo (featuring both USA Goalie Ryan Miller, and Alex Ovechkin) on 3/3 averaged 235,000 viewers, so somewhere the numbers that Multichannel News has aren't adding up. If the pre-Olympics average above is correct, there was no "bounce" at all.
Actually, the 3 game average for Versus (Colorado-Detroit, Philadelphia-Tampa Bay, Washington-Buffalo) was only 263,000, less than the season average. So you're right, there really is no Olympics bounce for the NHL.
yeah I don't get it. Perhaps they were measuring total audience (watched at least 6 minutes), but then the numbers seem too low.
Robert or Bill,
This isn't related but have you got any numbers for Psych's season finale last night?
NHL on a national scale is all but dead. The bounce, if any, would be on local games more so than national. That being said, I like the NHL on Versus.
no.
thanks!
I wish I could watch Hockey on Versus.. Damn DIRECTV and Comcast! Hockey needs to go back to ESPN after this deal with Versus is over
BTW, do you guys ever get ratings to the shows that they show on the 101 channel? I have never seen any posted anywhere
It would help if people, you know, actually got the Versus channel.
I never watched hockey before the Olympics. Now, though, I would love to be able to watch the games on Versus. The Minnesota Wild games are all I get, and though they're my adopted team, they kind of suck.
Huge hockey fan, but I think Versus is at a big disadvantage with hockey, some do to very poor promotion but a lot to do with the fact that MSG carries the biggest hockey market in the U.S. Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres(my team) , NESN has the Bruins and most of us who live near the border prefer to watch the games on Canadian television(better announcers and DON CHERRY)
Huge hockey fan, but I think Versus is at a big disadvantage with hockey, some do to very poor promotion but a lot to do with the fact that MSG carries the biggest hockey market in the U.S. Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres(my team) , NESN has the Bruins and most of us who live near the border prefer to watch the games on Canadian television(better announcers and DON CHERRY)
I am a hockey fan and Directv is not carrying versus this year. I am angry and I don't think a viewer should be held hostage by any TV distributor. I should be able to purchase any channel I would like watch instead of giving me 600 channels that have no appeal to me.
I'm waiting for the 'NHL on NBC' bounce to show up.
I'm puzzled that the Peacock network didn't schedule a handful of weekend afternoon NHL games post-'Winter Olympics' just to capitalize on the increased interest in hockey. A missed opportunity for them.
I am a hockey fan but I have DirecTV which dropped Versus so I don't know. Hockey fans I think are different than other fans. Hockey fans watch their regional sports network and follow their local teams and don't really care about other games until the playoffs. I don't miss Versus at all. I buy the NHL Center Ice package and watch the games I want, Versus is not included in the NHL Center Ice package. If you are a huge hockey fans you buy the Center Ice package, if not you probably don't care about Versus. I really doubt Versus got a bump from the Olympics.
Not exactly a great slate of games that you give for examples. Caps-Sabres, maybe, but that's it. And NBC puts that Sunday game on way too early for people west of the Mississippi to have any interest. Hell, the Caps-Hawks game Sunday will start at 11:30 AM Chicago time. Many people haven't even gotten home from church yet.
Versus is in 60 million homes…was in 75 mil last year at this time.
Versus is a joke…hockey gave them some revelency and they can't even stay available for the NHL..they are worse off now then 4 years ago with distribution
The NHL needs to demand more out of their TV deals to get extra exposure. Right now it seems the positives for the league's ratings outside of the playoffs is the local ratings upticks in most markets.
Could you imagine how bigger of a bounce it would be it they were on Direct TV? Currently, they are still not on there. Still feuding with them.
I'm waiting for the 'NHL on NBC' bounce to show up.
I'm puzzled that the Peacock network didn't schedule a handful of weekend afternoon NHL games post-'Winter Olympics' just to capitalize on the increased interest in hockey. A missed opportunity for them.
I am a hockey fan but I have DirecTV which dropped Versus so I don't know. Hockey fans I think are different than other fans. Hockey fans watch their regional sports network and follow their local teams and don't really care about other games until the playoffs. I don't miss Versus at all. I buy the NHL Center Ice package and watch the games I want, Versus is not included in the NHL Center Ice package. If you are a huge hockey fans you buy the Center Ice package, if not you probably don't care about Versus. I really doubt Versus got a bump from the Olympics.
Not exactly a great slate of games that you give for examples. Caps-Sabres, maybe, but that's it. And NBC puts that Sunday game on way too early for people west of the Mississippi to have any interest. Hell, the Caps-Hawks game Sunday will start at 11:30 AM Chicago time. Many people haven't even gotten home from church yet.