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from hockey's puck
It's unlikely Olympic gold will boost NHL viewing
By Carl Bialik
Hockey has a venerable tradition and fast-moving action, moments of grace and exciting brawls, a huge fan base in nearby Canada, and a classic movie in "Slapshot."
Yet for all that, the sport seems unable to draw American viewers to their TV sets.
The National Hockey League hopes all that is about to change after Sunday's U.S.-Canada gold-medal game.
The 5-2 Canadian victory scored a 10.7 rating, the highest for a hockey game since the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Games, featuring the "Miracle on Ice."
The NHL suspended its season for nearly two weeks to allow its players to participate in the Olympic tournament. The hope was that exposure of its players' talents would catapult the NHL to greater glory and greater U.S. TV ratings.
The best-case scenario was realized when the two North American teams advanced through the medal round to reach the final game.
Nonetheless don't bet on an NHL turnaround, say analysts.
"We'll see a bump in interest in the NHL," says Marc Ganis, president of sports consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd. "But it won't be dramatic, and it won't be very long-lasting."
Ganis and other analysts recall the aftereffects of the U.S. team's shocking run to the gold medal at the '80 Games. The semifinal that year against the Soviet Union--which has been dubbed the "Miracle on Ice"--drew a 23.9 rating, and the final against Finland came in just behind, at 23.2.
"The Soviet Union-U.S. game in 1980, which was not only arguably the greatest Olympic moment on TV, but also possibly the greatest sports TV moment, and even arguably the greatest moment in entertainment history, didn't grant hockey a whole new place in the American psyche," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
Hockey ratings after the '80 Games got an initial boost, and then they began to decline again.
The NHL is currently in the third year of a five-year, $400 million deal with ABC and ESPN that looks like a dud for the networks. The league is rating about as highly as it did on Fox in the '90s. ABC boasts that its ratings for this season are way up, but this only reflects how low the ratings had been; they declined 15% last year.
The NBA, despite suffering from a 12 percent ratings decline last season, still tripled the NHL's ratings.
NBC, still reeling from the loss of all major sports besides the Olympics, certainly didn't go out of its way to boost a property of its rival, relegating many games to cable.
The U.S. men's quarterfinal and semifinal matchups were broadcast on NBC at 10:45 p.m. EST and 11:30 p.m., respectively.
The semifinal matchup, in particular, had the potential to evoke "Miracle on Ice" recollections, especially as it came 22 years to the day after the real Miracle. But at 11:30 p.m., the game could rate only a 7.2, excellent for hockey but one-third the rating of the 1980 game.
"While I'm not sure NBC buried hockey," Thompson says, "we probably would have seen a lot more hockey if NBC was about to follow that up with a season of hockey coverage."
Still, the existence of cable, where most Olympic hockey matches were broadcast and where many tuned in, may make the difference between the aftereffects of these Olympics and of the '80 Games.
"The year 2002 is a very different entertainment landscape from 1980," says Thompson.
"There is a better environment now for hockey to cash in on the interest that the Olympics generated than there was in 1980, when there were not as many venues for this stuff to play on television."
The participation of NHL players this year, in contrast to that of the amateur 1980 U.S. squad, gives the league added exposure, here and abroad.
"This is an excellent platform for people to see the skill level of NHL players," says Shawn Bradley, vice president and chief operating officer of the Bonham Group Market Research Co.
"The NHL has truly established itself as far and away the premier professional hockey league in the world. The Olympics is a wonderful platform for them to communicate that on a worldwide basis. I believe it will provide them with excellent inroads into international markets."
It could also help at home, though newly intrigued viewers may be turned off by differences between the international and NHL styles of play. Many observers are calling for the NHL to adopt the more wide-open international style if it wishes to capitalize on the Olympics.
All analysts agree that if hockey is to see a post-Games boost, it must act quickly.
"This is now the crucial moment," says Thompson.
"You've got these people who never watched hockey before who got into it during these Olympic games. Before their interest wanes, you want to immediately give them visible opportunities to watch other examples of the sport."
What advice would he give NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman?
"Start a great consciousness-raising campaign," Thompson suggests. "There is an NHL, and this is how it works. You've got to get people into the culture of hockey."
February 26, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Carl Bialik is a New York writer and a contributor to Media Life.
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