NBC ratings crush USA vs. Canada on MSNBC
Many balked about NBC putting Sunday night's thrilling hockey game between the United States and Canada on MSNBC. Turns out they actually know what they're doing.
NBC ratings crush USA vs. Canada on MSNBC
The early television ratings from Sunday night are in.
For all those – including me – who lambasted NBC’s decision of putting Sunday night’s thrilling United States victory over Canada on sister station MSNBC, we can eat humble pie. Turns out NBC does actually know what it's doing, after all.
Nationally, an average of 23.3 million viewers tuned in each half-hour from 7:30 pm EST until 10 o’clock pm EST to watch ice dancing and other Olympic highlights on NBC.
Almost 15 million less people (an average of 8.22 million) tuned into MSNBC in the U.S. during that same time period to watch the United States beat Canada to earn the No. 1 seed and cap off their preliminary round schedule.
That sounds like a win-win for NBC.
Let's put those numbers in perspective:
- Sunday night was the most watched hockey game in the U.S. since May 10, 1973 (Chicago vs. Montral, Game 6). Sunday night’s game had more viewers than Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final between Detroit and Pittsburgh.
- It is the second most-watched program in MSNBC history, falling just 8,000 average viewers short of the 2008 Presidential Election coverage.
- MSNBC is available in 78 million households, NBC is available in 112 million households.
Would it have been nice to see the game on NBC? Certainly.
It's tough to say whether the game would've garnered higher ratings on NBC. It seemed like many people just tuned into NBC for Olympic coverage and not to watch a specific event or game.
But here’s why I enjoyed it on MSNBC: they showed the game in its entirety, unlike some of the other games in the preliminary round where they were forced to break away from coverage, and they showed it with limited interruptions. It was annoying to watch some of the other prelim games with seconds of play missing so they could fit in a full commercial between the quick Olympic stoppages.
Plus, I’m biased. I watched the game in HD… MSNBC isn’t available in HD in all areas. Some say that HD has a bigger impact on hockey than it does any other sport.
On MSNBC, the game was also broadcast live Coast-to-Coast instead of on a tape-delay out West.
Now, with much of the country buzzing, NBC will be in a good spot to move the playoff and medal round games over to the big network.
Interestingly, Sunday’s game between the U.S. and Canada – which is still being talked about on Twitter as “Do you believe in Miller-acles?” because of goaltender Ryan Miller’s performances – did beat NBC in some markets.
The Buffalo News reported early today that MSNBC was viewed in 14.6 percent of Buffalo-area households compared to 13.4 percent of the other coverage on NBC.
Buffalo is a true hockey town... but it’d be interesting to see which markets with hockey had MSNBC out-draw big brother NBC during the game. How much of Sunday night’s national ratings come from parts of the country where hockey isn’t even a blip on the radar?
Sunday's game was the most watched program in Canadian television history. An average of 10.6 million - peaking at 13 million people - watched on CTV. A reported 12 million people watched the U.S. beat Canada back on Jan. 6 in the World Junior (Under-20) Championships in Canada.
The 8.22 million viewers in the U.S. would’ve made up more than 24-percent of Canada’s total population.
Follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter for the latest updates at http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.
Comment removed.
I was puzzled at first when the game didnt come on NBC. I scanned a few pages of the comcast menu, nadda. Then I just googled it, sure enough came right up that it was on msnbc. I ended up toggling between skating and hockey.— Umaguma- Who cares? Hockey fans could find the game - as long as they were intelligent enough to read about it on the 400 sports sites on the web. And if the rest of the world was happy watching ice dancers, good for them. TV ratings only impact fans if decisions are made to not show the game at all - and that won't happen in my life time.— jlmfl
- Why is this sportswriter breathing through his mouth?— riverhealer
- The hockey game sent MSNBC's usual audience up 20 fold,while the ice dancing just doubled NBC's usual Sunday.— bigeastbeast
- You mean, "Almost 15 million FEWER people (an average of 8.22 million) tuned IN TO (not into) MSNBC. Geesh! Journamalism!— tattoo_charlie
- Broadcasters don't put on hockey for casual fans. If they did, the guy calling the play by play would call the play by play. How they can not announce what a penalty was, or why the play stopped, is beyond me. I know that they stopped because of an offsides, but the casual watcher just gets confused and pushes the button for the ice dancing.— jimf
my dad was having such a hard time finding the olympic coverage that my brother an I had to make him a "cheat sheet" written on a painters tape on the coffee table so he could find the other channels. NBC choosing ice dancing was entirely about commercials, they can have almost a 50/50 mix of ads and content with ice dancing, but only about 10% ads for hockey. When you factor in how many people aren't watching anything but NBC for the olympics, and the very active anti-hockey campaigns many sportswriters have launched in the last 5 years, the ratings don't really mean anything.— Pelti- I would have LOVED to watch the game, but I do not have cable. I did not watch NBC because I couldn't care less about Ice Dancing. Count me as someone who would have improved those MSNBC numbers had I been able to. I even tried to watch it online through NBC, but, once again, you had to have a cable subscription (and be able to prove it), to watch it! In essence, it was a giant F.U. to people who don't have cable (yes, we do exist). A free channel broadcast over the air at the top of the dial throughout the country is not comparable to some obscure channel only available to those with cable/satellite, that so few people watch that not many would even bother to check its listings (if they even get the channel). This is the dumbest argument I have heard in quite some time. Repeat with me people, "CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION".— Nylund
- Why on Earth are you comparing the ratings for a broadcast network with those for a cable network? Have you no familiarity with how TV ratings work? Do you understand that a huge number of people don't get MSNBC at all? A meaningful comparison would compare MSNBC's ratings for this game with their typical ratings. Most evenings, MSNBC gets fewer than 1 million viewers. So they got more than 8 times as many for a hockey game that NBC didn't promote! It seems that people who work with TV ratings more often (as opposed to sportswriters) are more impressed by these numbers. NBC just loves the figure skating, and they intend to show it during prime time coverage every single night. But a lot of us would prefer to see more coverage of actual sports.— Whispers
- Since I am not glued to my television, let alone NBC, I had no idea that the hockey game was being shown on a sister station. I turn to the Olympics and take what is there and pay attention according to my interest. Had I know the hockey was on, I would surely have been watching it! I wonder how many others did not even know, especially those that do not watch NBC very often.— BillinVA
- The coverage of these Olympics SUCK at best. I had no idea where to find any of these games at first. Then the digital guide on Comcast would have wrong info. For example, the guide says hockey will be on Channel 44, but no, it was on 43! Then a game STARTS on 44 and you have to hop over to 43 in the middle of a game... but only after you wait for commercials and intros. If you put that game on NBC, where people NATURALLY start off watching the Olympics, it would have had close or the same numbers. NBC sucks.— johnnygriswold
- How could anyone not know where the hockey game was??? Every game from the entire tournament so far has been on the same channel. Its like msnbc is the all hockey/curling channel. 24/7.— MdeanL
play it on NBC and not CNBC. Plus people who don't have cable can't watch it. NBC sucks, they are dumb and should be out of bussiness.— azguz- As much as I have been frustrated by NBC's handling of hockey coverage this past week, no one commenting here has the right to complain about not being able to find the game. The NBC Olympic site has listed the channels for the specific games for a week now. You can even customize the site for your location/provider to find the channel number. If you're capable of posting here, you should have been able to find the game.— shadesofdeath
