Close Menu
Sportstalk
  • NFL
  • NBA
  • NHL
  • MLB
  • Soccer
  • More
    • Nascar
    • Golf
    • NCAA Basketball
    • NCAA Football
    • Tennis
    • WNBA
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Disclaimer
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Sportstalk
  • NFL

    Chances are strongly moving to Shedeur Sanders to the Saints

    April 12, 2025

    Derek Carr’s injury opens the door to Saints to take SheDer Sanders at n ° 9

    April 12, 2025

    Patriots, ravens, commanders develop FSU K Ryan Fitzgerald

    April 11, 2025

    Jalen Pitre, Texans agree on a three -year extension

    April 11, 2025

    Report: The NFL is looking for Audio 911 of the latest Incident of Tyreek Hill

    April 11, 2025
  • NBA

    NBA: Nikola Jokic makes history and the Lakers seal third place

    April 12, 2025

    NBA: Jimmy Butler Marque 24 as Warriors Top Blazers – Inquirer.net

    April 12, 2025

    Knicks secures the head of n ° 3 at the Eastern Conference, to face the pistons in the first round

    April 12, 2025

    Orlando Magic vs Indiana Pacers April 11, 2025 Box Scores – NBA

    April 12, 2025

    Cavaliers vs knicks predictions: ratings, choice of experts, recent statistics, trends and best bets for April 11

    April 11, 2025
  • NHL

    Rust puts a new career in a career while the Penguins beat Devils, 4-2

    April 12, 2025

    Sam Rinzel plays far beyond his years with Blackhawks

    April 12, 2025

    The Hockey News Big Show: What is the future of Brock Boecks?

    April 11, 2025

    Alexander Nikishin released from the KHL contract, to sign a two -year ELC with Carolina Hurricanes

    April 11, 2025

    Three take -out dishes: the speed of the panthers clip wings, Samoskevich continues to impress

    April 11, 2025
  • MLB

    Metting notes: Pete Alonso plays freely, the Rally of Jose Siri’s walking

    April 12, 2025

    Yankees Buthury Tracker: Marcus Stroman undergoes tests on the left knee after the start of Friday

    April 12, 2025

    Gregori Arias of the Marlins Minor League is suspended 56 games for a positive screening test

    April 11, 2025

    Fantasy Baseball Bull Paccn Brief: Stash to consider and to narrower situations that have our attention

    April 11, 2025

    Braves by Ronald Acuña Jr.

    April 11, 2025
  • Soccer

    Soccer and automatic learning: 2 hot topics for 2018 – Data Central Science

    April 12, 2025

    Inter Milan makes the offer of PSG Target in the middle of Liverpool, AC Milan Interest

    April 12, 2025

    Nice ideas to enjoy the World Cup as a family – Salon.com

    April 11, 2025

    “Thuram is crazy! I don’t know how Barella does it”

    April 11, 2025

    No Lionel Messi, no problem while Argentina at the head of the Uruguay: the message of Six words from Scaloni says a lot with 2026 FI … – World football talk

    April 11, 2025
  • More
    • Nascar
    • Golf
    • NCAA Basketball
    • NCAA Football
    • Tennis
    • WNBA
Sportstalk
Home»NHL»Edmonton-Florida Stanley Cup Highlights NHL TV Issues — TVREV
NHL

Edmonton-Florida Stanley Cup Highlights NHL TV Issues — TVREV

JamesMcGheeBy JamesMcGheeAugust 19, 2024No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Format1500w.jpeg
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

While the NHL media rights deal for 2021 While Disney and Warner Media have helped boost the league’s revenues and television exposure, that doesn’t solve a couple of major lingering issues: how to manage the quantification of Canadian teams’ audiences and the lasting impact of southern expansion on team recognition (for the casual fan) and parity.

Spectators continue to watch Canadian teams, especially the “original six” teams, such as the Montreal Canadiens or the Toronto Maple Leafs. But without the ability to attract American viewers or easily measure audiences abroad, the NHL’s television partners are not necessarily in favor of Canadian teams participating in the Stanley Cup Final.

As a result, the league may not be the same either, which is difficult when you have seven clubs in Canada. But the longer Canadian teams stay in the playoffs, the harder it is to truly quantify TV ratings, which hurts the NHL’s ability to negotiate the next media rights deal and the network partners’ ability to sell inventory that puts a precise value on audiences.

Beyond the question of the Canadian team, there is also the question of the league’s expansion and relocation to non-traditional and “newer” American markets.

This is not an exhaustive list of expansion and relocation destinations, but the NHL has added clubs in cities like San Jose, Anaheim, Tampa, Miami, Dallas, Raleigh, Nashville, Denver, Las Vegas and Seattle over the past 30 years, while losing a Phoenix team to Utah and an Atlanta team to Winnipeg.

That’s a significant number of teams (not counting others like Minnesota, Columbus, and Ottawa), and many of them have had significant success over the years. That’s a good sign for the league’s competitiveness in many ways. But to a more casual viewer, it can also make the playoffs seem like an even-keeled group of expansion teams, even though that’s not really the case (except for Vegas’ run of success since joining in 2017-18).

It’s a long way to go to get to these two issues facing off again in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, a matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers.

Now, I have to admit that I was a little upset by this game personally, as a Rangers fan, which certainly got me thinking about these questions to start: Is Florida (or another Southern state) vs. Canada an NHL nightmare? Recent Stanley Cup Notes can indicate it.

In 2021, an average of 2.4 American viewers per game watched the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Canadiens in five games. The 2007 Stanley Cup between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators averaged just 1.7 million American viewers per game. In 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes and Oilers averaged 2.8 million viewers the year after the infamous 2005 lockout ended that entire season.

From a US television perspective, Canada vs. Southern State TBD also seems to draw roughly the same audience as any matchup between two Southern teams. Florida vs. Vegas averaged 2.6 million viewers last year, and Tampa Bay vs. Dallas only drew 2.0 million in 2020. Even the Los Angeles Kings vs. New Jersey Devils series in 2012 only drew 3.0 million viewers per game, which is astonishing, despite the markets you assume it is in.

All of this isn’t to say that the NHL shouldn’t invest in expanding the game to new markets, that Canadian teams shouldn’t exist, or that teams in the South shouldn’t exist. To be fair, the 2004-05 lockout set the sport back a decade in the popular consciousness in the United States, and new markets and better television exposure were (and are) the easiest ways to regain that momentum.

The question, however, is what is the price of all this from a television perspective?

At this point, Florida State has been to five consecutive Stanley Cups (three for Tampa Bay, two for Florida, much to my dismay, again). Teams from Nevada, Texas, Tennessee, and California have also been to the Stanley Cup in the last decade.

Despite the ratings issues mentioned above, there is a long-term gain from the success and awareness of these non-traditional hockey markets in their respective markets, as it increases local interest in the sport, which leads to ticket sales, more kids watching and playing, etc. The ratings can potentially increase in the long run. And if more people care As far as hockey goes, then ultimately it’s a win for the NHL.

The question for the league is how it can better leverage these “non-traditional” and/or Canadian-heavy matchups (in this case, both) to ensure that its teams and players are marketed to a broader American audience so that they are more familiar with the NHL’s on-ice product and associated personalities.

A YouGov poll ranks Oilers’ Connor McDavid — the best hockey player — outside of America’s top 1,000 athletes Mark Cuban once said in 2019 that he couldn’t tell you who McDavid was or where he played. Hyperbole or not, it raises the point that the league has had a select few players (Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky…) break through into the national consciousness in the way athletes from other Big 4 sports do. That’s a mistake, especially if you’re promoting parity and expansion as ways to grow the game.

While there is a chance this series could be a “nightmare” for the NHL from a ratings perspective, there is still work to be done now nationally to ensure that the next matchup between Canada and the team from the South doesn’t have to be a nightmare.

The NHL could work with brands and broadcast partners to highlight this star-studded series between McDavid, the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard and the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk, Alex Barkov and Sam Reinhart (among many other big names from both teams). Social videos should be filled with NHL sponsored videos featuring these athletes. Yet there have only been a handful (about 30) of sponsored videos featuring them in the last 30 days according to Tubular laboratories data, and many of them were local advertisements in Canada.

Social video may not be exactly television. But when you consider How Much Is YouTube Taking Over Watch Time in the US?Especially with younger viewers, this suggests that social video is exactly where the NHL should be positioning itself in hopes of creating a national conversation around its product that converts unaffiliated audiences into viewers. What is “just” likes and comments today could be the difference maker in the next media negotiation at the end of the decade. And as live sports take up an ever-larger share of the television landscape, hockey should want to position itself as best it can.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
jamesmcghee
JamesMcGhee
  • Website

Related Posts

Rust puts a new career in a career while the Penguins beat Devils, 4-2

April 12, 2025

Sam Rinzel plays far beyond his years with Blackhawks

April 12, 2025

The Hockey News Big Show: What is the future of Brock Boecks?

April 11, 2025

Alexander Nikishin released from the KHL contract, to sign a two -year ELC with Carolina Hurricanes

April 11, 2025
Add A Comment
Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Latest

Stan Smith: Tennis Great deplores the sport that fights against “many of the same problems that we had 50 years ago” after the PTPA trial

April 12, 2025

Kansas’ state of women’s state basketball, Serena Sunday, receives the invitation to the draft of the WNBA

April 12, 2025

Metting notes: Pete Alonso plays freely, the Rally of Jose Siri’s walking

April 12, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from sportstalk

Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
Hot Categories
  • NFL
  • NBA
  • NHL
  • MLB
  • Soccer
We are social
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest Sports news from sportstalk

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Disclaimer
© 2025 Copyright 2023 Sports Talk. All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.