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.
No one could find the hockey game. I could not find a listing for the game on this site. I think most expected to see it on NBC.— frank2926- Alot of people didn't even know the game was on MSNBC....if the game was on NBC ratings would have been even higher...so don't give NBC too much credit they're still morons.— madnvocal
- yeah i really don't think you can let NBC off the hook..obviously the ratings would have been much higher if the game was not on a cable station that many people do not get. I know countless people who do not have cable and couldn't watch. Frank, it would be interesting to note how many people actually get MSNBC, and compare that to the 8 million people that watched. I'm sure it would be quite impressive.— flyguys222
- i can't say it enough. you Americans just don't know what you are missing. hockey is the fastest, toughest team sport in the world and requires the most strength and skill. like don cherry says " there is no running out of bounds in hockey". maybe it is just that large parts of the USA just don't get that much winter. as a canadian flyers fan i am always grateful that people in philly "get it" and support the flyers so much. keep it up!!!— canflyfan
- If only NBC and Comcast could work out a deal where MSNBC HD and CNBC HD could be made available on Comcast. I wonder if those two companies can work together somehow. I was fine with the game being broadcasted on MSNBC, and enjoyed the lack of commercials, but the lack of HD is the biggest problem. NBC should know that more people get USA HD than MSNBC HD. I am sure they could have rearranged the reruns of Monk on USA and aired the game on USA instead.— AreaMan
- Umm, Comcast has both CNBC and MSNBC in HD. Channel 818 and 819 on my box..— 68Eagles
- Many older folks, not as savvy in this 1000-channel world, didn;t have aby clue as to how to find the game...— natufian
- The game was the most watched broadcast in Canadian history. '"A total of 9.48 million viewers watched on CTV alone, the biggest audience yet for any event at Vancouver 2010, including the opening ceremony (8.95 million), while 1.08 million watched on V," CTV said.' Source http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Canada+hockey+game+sets+Canadian+television+sports+ratings+record/2598664/story.html
- Areaman- there is a deal to broadcast those any many other channels in HD on Comcast. The problem, up until recently, is that the bandwidth to carry a large amount of HD channels was not there. But now with the digital upgrade, Comcast can free up bandwidth occupied by analog stations and use the space to add more HD channels. They are in the midst of doing that now and should have a nice compliment in Philadelphia within the next few weeks. Actually, all of the HD channels in the 200s will be moved into the 800s so that all HD channels are in the same "neighborhood".— mike c
- It's funny, I don't hear people buzzing about ice dancing but everyone is talking about that hockey game. NBC don't know sh*t and caters to rednecks.— Kanayd
- I enjoyed watching the game on MSNBC because of fewer commercials. I'm lucky enough to get it in HD, so I was a totally happy camper. I don't buy that ice dancing would draw more people than last night's game ... as the poster above stated ... NBC are MORONS. Their coverage of the Olympics sucks...way too many commercials, and to much breaking away from one sport to another.— Crazee Bizee
- I am a hockey fan and had a hard time finding the game. Obviously, casual fans would not know where to look and would just settle for what is on the network channel. The stats in this article are misleading. Hockey's ratings would have been much higher had it been shown on NBC and not a cable channel that is hard to find and not available to all potential viewers.— robertthomas
- What a stupid article. Your really equate the penetration and awareness of MSNBC vs NBC? How many times did NBC advertise - switch over to MSNBC for live coverage of the hockey game - during ice dancing? How about ZERO. And the % of homes carrying MSNBC is much lower than NBC so watched about 5 minutes of the game on MSNBC in SD and turned it off as the quality is so poor in my Comcast blighted cable system.— tsdguy
- it took me almost an hour to figure out the game was on msnbc (which is so stupid by the way) glad I looked a couple of days ago--that was one of he best hockey games ever and since most people do not even get msnbc--this maybe the dumbest story ever written— 2dockanze
- As stated by many here, people tuned in the Olympics on NBC, not a particular event. If the hockey game would have been on NBC instead of girly ice dancing, it would have had higher ratings. Comparing ANY show from broadcast networks to something on MSNBC simply isn't valid.— LtAnger
