Sports TV
Hockey high: Final game sets a record
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jun 16, 2009 - 7:51:54 AM

Perhaps hockey can still make a case as the fourth major sport.

Capping a hugely successful postseason, the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs drew the biggest audience for a hockey game in 36 years, giving NBC the best finals performance in seven years.

Game 7 of the Detroit Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins series, won by the Pens, averaged 8 million viewers, the most to tune into an NHL game since Game 6 of the 1973 finals between Montreal and Chicago drew 9.4 million.

It also boosted viewership for the five Stanley Cup games carried on NBC to an average 5.6 million, the best since ABC averaged 5.8 million for three telecasts in 2002.

Versus carried the other two games, and it, too, set records, with the two contests becoming the most-watched telecasts in network history.

Game 7 was also the highest-rated series-ending game since 2003, averaging a 4.3 household rating and 8 share. The game averaged a season-high 3.2 among adults 18-49.

That closed out a big postseason for the NHL, which has been dogged by doubters since returning from a lockout that threatened the league’s very existence four years ago.

Upon its return, hockey seemed to lose all relevance. ESPN dropped the sport, and Versus, which had just changed its name from the Outdoor Life Network, picked up the sport in an attempt to broaden its brand.

NBC won the broadcast rights without even paying a carriage fee, and two years ago, Stanley Cup ratings hit all-time lows.

But the turnaround began last year, when ratings for the Stanley Cup jumped with a matchup between Detroit and Pittsburgh, two hockey towns with big-name players and loyal fan bases.

This year’s finals, a rematch of last year’s series won by the Red Wings, provided similar intrigue as Penguin Sidney Crosby, considered by many to be the best player in the league, attempted to win his first Cup.

While hockey still has miniscule regular-season viewership compared to NASCAR, which has taken its place as the country’s fourth major sport behind football, baseball and basketball, it at least has momentum on its side.

Ratings for NASCAR have been stagnating, while hockey is growing.


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