Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Ratings Roundup: NBC Sports Gain Immediate Success with First Two Games of the NHL Stanley Cup Final

01/06/2018

Ratings Roundup: NBC Sports Gain Immediate Success with First Two Games of the NHL Stanley Cup Final By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor

Friday, June 1, 2018 - 9:04 am

Print This Story

Story Highlights

Ratings roundup is a rundown of ratings news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, NBC Sports starts their coverge of the NHL Stanley Cup Final with Games 1 and 2, ESPN arrives at the doorstep of the company's history with telecasts of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, TNT of the 2018 NBA Western Conference Finals, ESPN sees viewership growth in May, and Fox Sports experiences boost throughout Atlanta Braves regular season.

NBC Sports Gears Up for Anticipated NHL Stanley Cup Final

Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final Wednesday night between the Washington Capitals and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights set numerous consumption records across NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. Alex Ovechkin scored his 13th goal of the postseason and his first ever in a Stanley Cup Final, helping the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The Game 2 TAD of 3.788 million viewers was up 16% vs. last year's Nashville-Pittsburgh Game 2 (3.278 million) on NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app, and up 47% vs. the comparable 2016 game (San Jose-Pittsburgh, 2.579 million).

NBCSN averaged a TV-only audience of 3.648 million viewers, making it the most-watched NHL game and the most-watched primetime program on the network in three years, both since the Tampa Bay-Chicago Stanley Cup Final game on June 10, 2015 (3.914 million). Game 2 now ranks as the fifth-most watched Stanley Cup Final game on NBCSN (25 games), and the network's most-watched non-Chicago Stanley Cup Final game ever. TV-only viewership peaked at 4.701 million viewers between 10:45-11 pm ET. NBCSN ranked No. 1 in all of television in the P18-49 demo for Game 2.

Digitally, Game 2 is now the most-streamed NHL game in history with 366,000 uniques ( 60% vs. 2017) and 27.0 million live minutes ( 32%). Game 2 also set the streaming record for Average Minute Audience with 140,000 viewers.

Locally, both Las Vegas (19.8) and Washington, D.C., (13.4) delivered their highest-rated NHL games ever on NBCSN.

Monday night's Game 1 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 5.279 million viewers on NBC, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app - making it the most-watched Game 1 in three years, with viewership up 7% vs. last year. The game also set local ratings records in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

The TAD of 5.279 million viewers was the highest for a Game 1 since 2015 (Chicago-Tampa, 5.586 million), the third-best since NBC Sports began broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final in 2006 (2015 and 2013, Boston-Chicago, 6.315 million), up 7% vs. last year's Game 1 (Nashville-Pittsburgh, 4.925 million), and up 28% vs. Game 1 in 2016 (San Jose-Pittsburgh, 4.132 million). TV-only viewership of Game 1 peaked at nearly six million viewers (5.906 million).

Across NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, Monday night's game totaled 321,000 uniques ( 67%), 16.1 million live minutes ( 18%), and an Average Minute Audience of 83,700 ( 18%) - all up from last year's Nashville-Pittsburgh Game 1. It is the most streamed NHL game ever in uniques.

Locally, Las Vegas delivered a 28.1 rating, which stands as the highest rating for a Golden Knights game ever in the market, surpassing Game 2's number.

With a 16.0 local rating in Washington, D.C., Game 1 was the highest-rated Capitals game ever on the networks of NBC in the market - topping Game 2 as well.

In addition, numerous markets had their highest local rating ever for a Game 1 on NBC in which their team was not playing: Buffalo, Chicago (4.02), Dallas (2.45), Los Angeles (3.23), Minneapolis, Nashville (4.11), Pittsburgh, Salt Lake (3.30), St. Louis, and Tampa (4.02). Non-NHL markets that also set Game 1 records for NBC broadcasts were Baltimore, Norfolk (2.99), and Richmond.

ESPN and the NBA ECF

ESPN drew its second-largest NBA audience ever for the Cleveland Cavaliers victory over the Boston Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals Game 7. It averaged 13,305,000 viewers, peaking with 17,463,000 viewers from 10:30-11 p.m. ET. It is the largest peak audience ever for an NBA game on ESPN.

The audience is currently only 41,000 viewers behind 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 - the Miami Heat and LeBron James vs. the Boston Celtics.

Based on Fast Nationals from Nielsen, ESPN is expected to win the night across all of television for its coverage of NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 7. Sunday night's telecast is now the most-watched game of the 2018 NBA Playoffs across networks.

Friday night's Cleveland Cavaliers victory over the Boston Celtics was ESPN's most-watched NBA Conference Finals Game 6 since 2012, according to Fast Nationals from Nielsen. The telecast averaged 8,089,000 viewers and peaked with 10,336,000 viewers from 10:30-11 p.m. ET.

The game was up 42% from the last time ESPN televised a Conference Finals Game 6 - Cleveland vs. Toronto - in 2016. ESPN won the night across all of television (broadcast and cable) for Friday, May 25.

The 2018 Eastern Conference Finals on ESPN averaged 8,449,000 viewers, up 34% from last year's Eastern Conference Finals, also a Cleveland vs. Boston series. It was up 29% from the 2017 Western Conference Finals - the Golden State Warriors vs. San Antonio Spurs - on ESPN.

Overall, the 2018 NBA Playoffs on ESPN (19 games) averaged 5,101,000 viewers, up 30% from 2017. It is the second-most watched NBA Playoffs ever on ESPN (back to 2003).

TNT Notices Impressive Numbers in Coverage of NBA WCF

TNT's exclusive presentation of 2018 NBA Western Conf
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/06/01/ratings-roundup-nbc-sports-gain...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

21/01/2025

L3Harris Names New Aerojet Rocketdyne President, Expands Leadership Roles

MELBOURNE, Fla., Jan. 21, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announced Ken Bedingfield, 52, has been appointed President, Aerojet Rocketdyne, effect...

21/01/2025

US Army Awards L3Harris Second Full-Scale ENVG-B Production Order

LONDONDERRY, N.H., Jan. 21, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has received a $263 million order from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Enhanc...

21/01/2025

L3Harris Adds Electronic Warfare Capabilities to T7 Robot at Vanguard

T7 robot with electronic warfare effects enables signals to be sensed and detected a few kilometres ahead of troops, keeping them out of harm's way....

21/01/2025

Holidays, Football and Blockbusters Drive Record Highs for YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in December, according to The Gauge

Four days in December interval exceed 100 billion viewing minutes of TV. Netfli...

21/01/2025

Brendan Carr Thanks Trump for FCC Chair Designation

WASHINGTON Brendan Carr expressed gratitude and eagerness to move forward on a range of issues in a statement Jan. 20 upon President Donald Trump's order na...

21/01/2025

Nexstar, Altice USA End Blackout

IRVING, Texas, and NEW YORK After exchanging increasingly pointed barbs in recent weeks, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) reached a new dis...

21/01/2025

G&D Merges With VuWall

Private-equity firm Naxicap has acquired VuWall, a provider of IP video walls, and will merge it with keyboard video mouse switch (KVM) provider Guntermann & Dr...

21/01/2025

For-A America Hires Joe Paryzek as Director, Solutions Development

CYPRESS, Calif. Industry veteran Joe Paryzek has joined video and audio systems distributor For-A America as director, solutions development....

21/01/2025

FCC Chair Carr Names Key Staffers

WASHINGTON, D.C. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced a number of key staff appointments to the Office of the Chairman and to the FCC....

21/01/2025

Happy New Fusion Macro

Happy New Fusion Macro Simon Ubsdell January 21, 2025 0 Comments Quick overview of the new entirely FREE Resolve Fusion macro that gives you a sexy be...

21/01/2025

Did You Know? Redshift for Cinema 4D: Falloff Shader

Did You Know? Redshift for Cinema 4D: Falloff Shader Marc Potocnik January 21, 2025 0 Comments The Did You Know? Redshift for Cinema 4D series provi...

21/01/2025

The devil's in the detail': industry reacts to UK DCMS funding boost

Media and entertainment business leaders across the UK have cautiously welcomed the announcement, while calling for continuing support By Matthew Corrigan Pu...

21/01/2025

RE:Vision Effects: Introducing Twixtor Standalone

RE:Vision Effects: Introducing Twixtor Standalone Brie Clayton January 21, 2025 0 Comments RE:Vision Effects, visual effects and video processing indu...

21/01/2025

Animating Starry Night using Curl Noise in After Effects

Animating Starry Night using Curl Noise in After Effects Graham Quince January 21, 2025 0 Comments Create vortex like patterns with an old plugin. Fo...

21/01/2025

Sonnet Announces Industry's First to Ship Thunderbolt 5 Dock With Integrated PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Storage

Sonnet Announces Industry's First to Ship Thunderbolt 5 Dock With Integrated...

21/01/2025

Franchise Projects Shouldn't be a Makeover

Franchise Projects Shouldn't be a Makeover Andy Marken January 20, 2025 0 Comments I'm going to tell you a story. It's going to sound rid...

21/01/2025

Industry Veteran Joe Paryzek Joins FOR-A America as Director, Solution Development

Paryzek Brings Expertise in Systems Integration, Technical Support, and Customer...

21/01/2025

Proximic by Comscore Releases 2025 State of Programmatic Report

Proximic by Comscore Releases 2025 State of Programmatic ReportKey Findings Highlight Continued Growth in Programmatic Advertising, Shift from Linear TV to CTV,...

21/01/2025

NoTraffic Reduces Road Delays, Carbon Emissions With NVIDIA AI and Accelerated Computing

More than 90 million new vehicles are introduced to roads across the globe every...

21/01/2025

Ahead of France's AI Action Summit, Thales unveils its latest innovations in trusted AI for critical systems

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Thales is a global technology leader in the defe...

21/01/2025

Second Act for Eurosong Announced

Singer-songwriter Reylta been announced as the second act bidding to represent Ireland at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. Reylta is the second of six acts hop...

21/01/2025

RT and Virgin Media Television announce Six Nations coverage with every game live and free-to-air

Coverage includes the Men's, Women's and Under 20's Six Nations RT ...

20/01/2025

FAA Trial Shows L3Harris' SafeRoute+ Boosting Airspace Capacity

L3Harris Commercial Aviation Solutions (CAS) today announced the promising results of its first-year participation in a landmark FAA trial that demonstrates the...

20/01/2025

MIP LONDON

Heading to MIP LONDON this February? So are we! We'd love to meet you at London's biggest content week. Get in touch to discover how Blue Lucy's sol...

20/01/2025

Netflix approves Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF digital film camera

To qualify, cameras must meet capture requirements including dynamic range, codec, resolution and workflow compatibility By Matthew Corrigan Published: Janua...

20/01/2025

Best of Show at ISE 2025 deadline extended

Companies now have until January 24th to submit products for the annual awards By TVBEurope Staff Published: January 20, 2025 Updated: January 21, 2025 ...

20/01/2025

TVBEurope January/February 2025 issue now available

Focusing on streaming and OTT, the issue features an interview with Channel 4s director of technology and distribution, Grace Boswood; finds out how BTs infrast...

20/01/2025

Tiffen Intros Dual Purpose Fusion Filters

The Tiffen Company introduces new Fusion Filters, designed to combine the industry's most sought-after, original Tiffen diffusion effects with high quality ...

20/01/2025

kicker deploys the Bitmovin Player to power a winning spo...

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, announces that kicker, a leading German digital sports publisher, has chosen the Bitmovin Player for ...

20/01/2025

Forderer ASC BVK Uses Astera to Recreate 70s Look on Sept...

Behind the Scenes on September 5 Summer 1972 marked just the second time the Olympics were televised live across the globe. Little did anyone anticipate the ...

20/01/2025

CFP National Championship 2025: ESPN's MegaCast Menu Highlighted by REMI Production of Field Pass With The Pat McAfee Show

CFP National Championship 2025: ESPN's MegaCast Menu Highlighted by REMI Pro...

20/01/2025

CFP National Championship 2025: Van Wagner To Hype Up Buckeyes, Fighting Irish Fans From New IP-Based Control Room

CFP National Championship 2025: Van Wagner To Hype Up Buckeyes, Fighting Irish F...

20/01/2025

CFP National Championship 2025: ESPN To Deliver Main Game Telecast in 4K for the First Time

CFP National Championship 2025: ESPN To Deliver Main Game Telecast in 4K for the...

20/01/2025

CFP National Championship 2025: It's All Hands on Deck for ESPN's Massive Production in Atlanta

CFP National Championship 2025: It's All Hands on Deck for ESPN's Massiv...

20/01/2025

NAMM Show 2025, Part 1: The Expo Has Become Pro Audio's Main Showcase

NAMM Show 2025, Part 1: The Expo Has Become Pro Audio's Main Showcase Moving beyond its music roots, the show begins to address broadcast's complex need...

20/01/2025

Sky to air definitive portrait of F1 champion Damon Hill

Sky to air definitive portrait of F1 champion Damon HillSky Exclusive documentary Hill will be available on Sky and streaming service NOW in 2025Monday 20 Janu...

20/01/2025

Rohde & Schwarz presents new wideband modulated load pull solution based on the R&S RTP oscilloscope

Rohde & Schwarz presents new wideband modulated load pull solution based on the ...

20/01/2025

Take a Wild Ride from the Mandap into Total Madness: Dhoom Dhaam' Launches on Netflix on February 14

Back to All News Take a Wild Ride from the Mandap into Total Madness: Dhoom Dh...

20/01/2025

Arqiva to deploy 1 million smart meters for United Utilities

Arqivas network already supports over 2m smart meters for some of the UKs largest water companies January 20, 2025 Winchester, UK Arqiva, a leading provide...

20/01/2025

Bobbi Arlo hoping to represent Ireland at Eurovision 2025 First listen and interview on today's Ray D'Arcy Show on RT Radio 1

Bobbi Arlo has today been announced as the first act bidding to represent Irelan...

20/01/2025

Mickey Joe Harte is the first celebrity to exit Dancing with the Stars

Mickey Joe Harte was the first celebrity to be eliminated from series eight of Dancing with the Stars tonight. Mickey Joe and pro partner Daniela Roze had the ...

20/01/2025

Nominations Announcement RT Radio 1 Folk Awards

Nominations Announcement - RT Radio 1 Folk Awards Celebrating the very best in folk music in Ireland from the past year Awards event LIVE in Vicar Street and...

18/01/2025

Sundance Institute Announces 2025 Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive Fellows

10 Projects to Be Developed at Annual January Screenwriters Lab; 10 Projects t...

18/01/2025

Sinclair Launches New Sales and Content Divisions

BALTIMORE In a move to redefine how it works with advertisers and audiences, Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced the rebranding and launch of new sales and c...

18/01/2025

Gray Media Stations To Air Atlanta Braves Spring Training Games

ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that it will air ten Spring Training Major League Baseball games with the Atlanta Braves on two dozen Gray Media stations, begi...

18/01/2025

Lawo To Showcase IP-Based AV Solutions at ISE 2025

Lawo has announced it will be showcasing a variety of IP-based solutions at ISE 2025 in Barcelona (Feb. 4-7) at booth 5H700....

18/01/2025

NAB Publishes Long-Awaited Future of TV Initiative Report

WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters today released the long-awaited Future of Television Initiative report, written to give the Federal Communic...

18/01/2025

DigitalGlues creativespace Storage Solution Delivers for...

DigitalGlue has announced that its creative.space shared storage solution was selected by the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) to house, organize and provide remo...