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(Yahoo)   National NHL ratings down 22 percent from last season, with fans apparently deciding social-media conversation on hockey is more fun than watching hockey   (ca.sports.yahoo.com) divider line
31
    More: Obvious, Sport, Voting, Game, National Hockey League, National Football League, United States, Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks  
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222 clicks; posted to Sports » on 02 Feb 2023 at 8:46 PM (7 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



31 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
lindalouwho [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-02 6:24:21 PM  
Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.
 
bluorangefyre [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-02 7:44:37 PM  
Also, showing off this Photoshopped picture to Caps fans is pure bliss.
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
Rev.K [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-02 8:15:03 PM  
"All shootouts all the time!"

- Bergman, probably
 
SoupGuru [TotalFark]
2023-02-02 8:18:05 PM  
Yeah, I subscribe to the ESPN plus package to watch Red Wings games. I just assume I get to watch all but a couple games each season. Turns out I've already missed a few for being on other channels or services. I'm also in what used to be an NHL desert until a hockey team got moved in right next door in Seattle but I can't watch a single farking game for some stupid blackout reason. I want to be a kraken fan but I can't.

Anyway... I just want to watch hockey. Stop farking with me.
 
Ishkur [OhFark]
2023-02-02 9:05:47 PM  

bluorangefyre: Also, showing off this Photoshopped picture to Caps fans is pure bliss.
[Fark user image 540x800]


Yeah, but Ovi's celly was better.

u.cubeupload.comView Full Size
 
WhiskeySticks
2023-02-02 9:21:11 PM  
ESPN is trash, who knew?
 
jfurdell
2023-02-02 9:49:11 PM  
We have a new team in Seattle that's doing great; it's almost impossible to watch them in action, unless you subscribe to cable, which most younger people (and me, an older guy) are not doing.  The streaming options are either expensive or difficult to figure out; the in-person tickets are often at least $100+, even on the secondary market.

Nobody can watch the team!  How do you expect people to get excited?

In the old days, there used to be a handful of games on local broadcast TV, so at least fans could check out a few games during the season.  Now everything gets shuffled to regional sports networks, often with sub-par announcing/coverage teams (the Kraken notwithstanding, they have great announcers).

No accident, I think, that the NFL and NBA do a lot better; their games are often available on local free TV.  The Seahawks are always available on local broadcast TV locally, even when they have a cable- or streaming-only broadcast; it's simulcast.  The NBA has marquee matchups on ABC on weekends.

(Also, the *cough* seven seas are less friendly to hockey fans these days)
 
jake_lex
2023-02-02 9:54:45 PM  

jfurdell: We have a new team in Seattle that's doing great; it's almost impossible to watch them in action, unless you subscribe to cable, which most younger people (and me, an older guy) are not doing.  The streaming options are either expensive or difficult to figure out; the in-person tickets are often at least $100+, even on the secondary market.

Nobody can watch the team!  How do you expect people to get excited?

In the old days, there used to be a handful of games on local broadcast TV, so at least fans could check out a few games during the season.  Now everything gets shuffled to regional sports networks, often with sub-par announcing/coverage teams (the Kraken notwithstanding, they have great announcers).

No accident, I think, that the NFL and NBA do a lot better; their games are often available on local free TV.  The Seahawks are always available on local broadcast TV locally, even when they have a cable- or streaming-only broadcast; it's simulcast.  The NBA has marquee matchups on ABC on weekends.

(Also, the *cough* seven seas are less friendly to hockey fans these days)


MLB is actually working on eliminating blackouts from its mlb.com streaming package, so you'd get to see your home team.  That's going to be the key to all this: if I subscribe to a streaming package to watch a sport, and the only games I get are garbage games between teams I don't care about, I'm not going to keep subscribing.
 
Practical_Draconian
2023-02-02 10:01:05 PM  
I get NBC got biatchy about OT hockey on Saturdays interrupting sacred Saturday Night Live, but WTF does ABC show that everybody gotta watch?

TNT is usually some superhero movie/Star Wars movie when not the NBA.

ESPN likes to assume all their programming is better than an NHL game, including hearing SportsCenter for the 12th time in a row, shuffleboard finals or rodeo clowns.

/Samuelis have been OK owners, but have to wonder if Disney had kept the Mighty Ducks how they'd be marketing the shiat out of Trevor Zegras or Everybody Hates Corey Perry. Actually, Trevor Zegras is getting put on that Everybody Hates wagon if I read the social medias correctly.
 
bluorangefyre [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-02 10:01:07 PM  

Ishkur: bluorangefyre: Also, showing off this Photoshopped picture to Caps fans is pure bliss.
[Fark user image 540x800]

Yeah, but Ovi's celly was better.

[u.cubeupload.com image 850x652]


Drunk Onevechkin after winning the Cup the only time he ever will was Best Onevechkin.

/could've only been rivaled by Clint Bowyer winning a NASCAR Cup Series Championship
//the man readily admitted to drinking himself into Tuesday after winning his last race
 
Samsquantch
2023-02-02 10:15:28 PM  
Geezers like myself will remember when ESPN had Thorne and Clement, the best broadcasting duo in the history of hockey broadcasting. I recently had to watch a Jerks game on ESPN because it was a national broadcast, and the announcing crew was so bad I almost would have preferred Pierre "I Want to Have Sidney Crosby's Baby" McGuire. They talked about everything except the game. ESPN clearly HATES hockey, which can't be helping attract new viewers.
 
schrepjm
2023-02-02 10:25:10 PM  
Holy shiat, so they're down to what...78 fans now?
 
jake3988 [OhFark]
2023-02-02 10:42:44 PM  

lindalouwho: Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.


Making games be on pay channels.... ding ding ding!

They used to be on NBC, a free OTA channel.  But NBC dropped them.

Now they're on TNT, ESPN, and ESPN+... not free channels.  Ergo, worse ratings.  I do have ESPN+, but due to NHL rules, I can't watch the games on there unless they're ESPN+ exclusive because of blackout rules.

Still royally irritates me.  I understand the point of blackout rules, they're to protect the local/regional channels.  But I live in an area about 3 hours away from Pittsburgh where it's literally 100% impossible to get the channel of the team I want to watch (Pittsburgh Penguins).  It's so stupid I'm considered to be in a blackout area.  Grumble.

To be fair, they royally suck this year and might not even make the playoffs, but that's beside the point.
 
pastramithemosterotic
2023-02-02 10:46:52 PM  
I'll watch the local Lightning games all the time and NHL network if they've got a good matchup

ESPNs NHL coverage sucks
 
jlee4677 [TotalFark]
2023-02-02 10:54:04 PM  
Remember this:

https://www.chron.com/sports/article/TV-Radio-Notebook-Outdoor-Life-Network-finalizes-1580085.php

They signed a TV contract with the freaking Outdoor Life Network in 2005. The NHL has always done everything in their power to be unpopular in the United States.
 
Representative of the unwashed masses
2023-02-02 11:28:22 PM  
As a Canadian, I've noticed that listening to ESPN radio or going to their website, that they give the NHL no exposure. It's all NFL and NBA all the time. How do they expect to build an audience if they don't try?
 
bluorangefyre [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-03 12:00:48 AM  

Representative of the unwashed masses: As a Canadian, I've noticed that listening to ESPN radio or going to their website, that they give the NHL no exposure. It's all NFL and NBA all the time. How do they expect to build an audience if they don't try?


See also:  NASCAR.  They only care that they have broadcast rights that they will use to promote the NBA, NFL, and SEC football, and will be quick to criticize whatever happens in a sport they broadcast that isn't those three.  However, I think we're finally out of the realm where they'll actually repeatedly show a fatality.  It took CBS only showing two replays of a kid snapping his leg playing basketball, and saying that was it, for everyone else to realize we don't need to show the absolutely tragic repeatedly.
 
BlazeTrailer
2023-02-03 12:08:51 AM  

jake3988: lindalouwho: Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.

Making games be on pay channels.... ding ding ding!

They used to be on NBC, a free OTA channel.  But NBC dropped them.

Now they're on TNT, ESPN, and ESPN+... not free channels.  Ergo, worse ratings.  I do have ESPN+, but due to NHL rules, I can't watch the games on there unless they're ESPN+ exclusive because of blackout rules.

Still royally irritates me.  I understand the point of blackout rules, they're to protect the local/regional channels.  But I live in an area about 3 hours away from Pittsburgh where it's literally 100% impossible to get the channel of the team I want to watch (Pittsburgh Penguins).  It's so stupid I'm considered to be in a blackout area.  Grumble.

To be fair, they royally suck this year and might not even make the playoffs, but that's beside the point.


The NBC airings were one gme on the weekend, and I believe after football season. The others were on obscur cable channels.

But on the current situation, the price of ESPN+ is great, but the interface sucks bals next to the NHL app that used to carry the package. And maddeningly the games i have to pirate are those that are on THE FARKING NHL NETWORK!
 
ENS
2023-02-03 12:14:01 AM  

lindalouwho: Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.


Our favorite game in this household is "let's try to guess what channel the Islanders are on tonight."
 
ThePea
2023-02-03 1:12:37 AM  

jake3988: lindalouwho: Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.

Making games be on pay channels.... ding ding ding!

They used to be on NBC, a free OTA channel.  But NBC dropped them.

Now they're on TNT, ESPN, and ESPN+... not free channels.  Ergo, worse ratings.  I do have ESPN+, but due to NHL rules, I can't watch the games on there unless they're ESPN+ exclusive because of blackout rules.

Still royally irritates me.  I understand the point of blackout rules, they're to protect the local/regional channels.  But I live in an area about 3 hours away from Pittsburgh where it's literally 100% impossible to get the channel of the team I want to watch (Pittsburgh Penguins).  It's so stupid I'm considered to be in a blackout area.  Grumble.

To be fair, they royally suck this year and might not even make the playoffs, but that's beside the point.


I live in northern Utah, so naturally Avalanche & Golden Knights are blacked out in order to force me to drive 8+ hours to the nearest hockey arena. Stupid stupid stupid.
 
knbwhite
2023-02-03 2:07:29 AM  

ThePea: jake3988: lindalouwho: Oh I dunno, maybe making some games be on pay channels, blacking out games in areas, and the behavior of some sports players and owners has made watching sports no longer Must See TV.

I know my viewership has dropped, but I don't get in threads if I'm not watching.

Making games be on pay channels.... ding ding ding!

They used to be on NBC, a free OTA channel.  But NBC dropped them.

Now they're on TNT, ESPN, and ESPN+... not free channels.  Ergo, worse ratings.  I do have ESPN+, but due to NHL rules, I can't watch the games on there unless they're ESPN+ exclusive because of blackout rules.

Still royally irritates me.  I understand the point of blackout rules, they're to protect the local/regional channels.  But I live in an area about 3 hours away from Pittsburgh where it's literally 100% impossible to get the channel of the team I want to watch (Pittsburgh Penguins).  It's so stupid I'm considered to be in a blackout area.  Grumble.

To be fair, they royally suck this year and might not even make the playoffs, but that's beside the point.

I live in northern Utah, so naturally Avalanche & Golden Knights are blacked out in order to force me to drive 8+ hours to the nearest hockey arena. Stupid stupid stupid.


Wild at some California team was blacked out in Las Vegas. I don't want to see the California team, dammit, I want to see Minnesota!
 
RatBomb
2023-02-03 8:00:00 AM  
With big-market clubs like the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and even the Pittsburgh Penguins struggling this season, it isn't hard to imagine those markets disproportionately affecting matters.


Also, fans of every sport have been conditioned to think only the big-market teams are worth watching...the Hurricanes one of the best, most exciting teams in the NHL right now, and nobody cares because they're "just the Hurricanes".
 
Ishkur [OhFark]
2023-02-03 8:23:34 AM  
The NHL is probably the only league that doesn't stagger its games.

pbs.twimg.comView Full Size


No one knows why they do this.
 
jake3988 [OhFark]
2023-02-03 8:27:13 AM  

RatBomb: With big-market clubs like the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and even the Pittsburgh Penguins struggling this season, it isn't hard to imagine those markets disproportionately affecting matters.


Also, fans of every sport have been conditioned to think only the big-market teams are worth watching...the Hurricanes one of the best, most exciting teams in the NHL right now, and nobody cares because they're "just the Hurricanes".


NFL, people cheer for their own team but tend to watch all games and don't care.  Especially with fantasy being so big and legalized betting taking off.

NHL, people tend to only watch their own team.

Big market teams get the biggest ratings in the NHL for that reason.  It's not that people only think those teams are worth watching it's just that those teams have the biggest fanbases.

Though, I thoroughly disagree that Pittsburgh is a 'big market'.  Pittsburgh is a pretty small market.  Rabid, passionate, fans, sure... but ultimately a pretty small market.
 
jake_lex
2023-02-03 9:18:34 AM  

jake3988: RatBomb: With big-market clubs like the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and even the Pittsburgh Penguins struggling this season, it isn't hard to imagine those markets disproportionately affecting matters.


Also, fans of every sport have been conditioned to think only the big-market teams are worth watching...the Hurricanes one of the best, most exciting teams in the NHL right now, and nobody cares because they're "just the Hurricanes".

NFL, people cheer for their own team but tend to watch all games and don't care.  Especially with fantasy being so big and legalized betting taking off.

NHL, people tend to only watch their own team.

Big market teams get the biggest ratings in the NHL for that reason.  It's not that people only think those teams are worth watching it's just that those teams have the biggest fanbases.

Though, I thoroughly disagree that Pittsburgh is a 'big market'.  Pittsburgh is a pretty small market.  Rabid, passionate, fans, sure... but ultimately a pretty small market.


The NFL has the advantage of being the only sport where all teams have national recognition.  In any of the other North American major leagues, if the championship came down to Kansas City vs. Philadelphia, we'd be talking about what a ratings disaster it would be.  But even the most casual fans are going to tune in to see Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts play.   There are no "small market" teams in the NFL.
 
WhiskeySticks
2023-02-03 11:03:51 AM  
Also, Leah Hextall's awful announcing probably has something to do with it.
 
mjbok
2023-02-03 11:31:17 AM  

schrepjm: Holy shiat, so they're down to what...78 fans now?


Which is still 75 more than the WNBA.

jake_lex: In any of the other North American major leagues, if the championship came down to Kansas City vs. Philadelphia, we'd be talking about what a ratings disaster it would be.


Outside of the NFL are there any championships that still draw good numbers?
 
I hereby demand that I be given a Fark account [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-03 12:00:51 PM  
Question: How does that compare to TV audiences as a whole?

Because most of the time, when they say X dropped 15%, all TV dropped 10-20%.
 
El Mariaski
2023-02-03 2:30:00 PM  
I'm a Devils fan who lives in LA. Despite having ESPN+, I'm blacked out of any game against the Kings and Ducks as well as any game on NHL Network. The latter doubly sucks since my team is actually good this year so NHL Network has picked up way more of their games (mostly against the Rangers, too). It's really obnoxious.
 
Tea_tempest_Cup
2023-02-03 2:32:55 PM  
As a Canadian, every Oilers game I want to watch is available to me on one streaming service that I subscribe to. If it were any more difficult than this, I would probably not watch the games.
 
ThePea
2023-02-03 7:31:26 PM  

Ishkur: The NHL is probably the only league that doesn't stagger its games.

[pbs.twimg.com image 542x680]

No one knows why they do this.


And then all the intermissions are at the same time so you can't flip back & forth to see more of another game. I'll cruise btwn all the games each night on ESPN+, even though I have a preferred hometown team. Now, I have favorite players no matter what teams they go to & that's been enjoyable to learn about. I guess I'm a weird fan compared to the NFL - a middle-aged woman who's happy to see literally any player (not Brad Marchand b/c he can to to HEII) do well.
I don't know why some people get down on Leah Hextall. If I can tolerate Tyson Nash's vocal fry & calling the Coyotes the desert dogs, they can listen to Leah get a name wrong occasionally.
 
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