Worrying viewership numbers emerge for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season
Some worrying viewership numbers emerged for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, leaving many fans to wonder when Gary Bettman will address the situation.
Despite coming off one of the best seasons in NHL history, it looks like the League is struggling to keep its audience, as both ratings and viewership dropped from last year.
Even if we're only a few weeks into the new season, it looks like fans don't tune in as much as they used to. Eight games on ESPN and TNT were compared, and a huge drop can be observed.
Read Sports Media Watch's analysis here:
The prior night, ESPN averaged 0.21 and 417,000 for Wild-Blues, down 29% and 24% respectively from Lightning-Sabres a year ago (0.29, 552K). The Flyers-Oilers nightcap had 333,000 (-35%).
All eight games on ESPN and TNT that can be compared to last season have declined."
The NHL executives must be worried about that sudden drop. With a new team, the Utah Hockey Club, they must have expected a raise in viewership, not the other way around.
Even if Gary Bettman is aware of it and even tried to reschedule games to get more viewers, we're yet to see results.
Bettman also hinted at the end of the NHL on regular cable, which will likely also have an impact on viewers. This is not a great time for the NHL to get bad numbers, as they just started their association with Amazon Prime to broadcast Monday night games.
| POLL | ||
24 OCTOBRE | 49 ANSWERS Worrying viewership numbers emerge for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season Are you worried about the NHL's viewership numbers? | ||
| Yes | 23 | 46.9 % |
| No | 26 | 53.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
