Ted's Take: Caps owner Ted Leonsis has a hockey blog and reprints the local ratings which Sports Business Daily and the Islanders website reported here yesterday.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good blog by the Caps owner, worth checking out.
Here is the link to the full sports business daily article which may or may not work for everyone here which include the versus ratings Mr Leonsis and the Islanders did not provide which is understandable given the update is Caps or Islander centric.
Through 22 games, the NHL on Versus is averaging a 0.3 HH rating, up from a 0.2 HH rating through the same number of games last season. Versus is also seeing gains in viewers (up 24%), as well as with men 18-34 (up 1%), 18-49 (up 27%), and 25-54 (up 43%). The most-viewed game this far this season has been the Flyers-Penguins matchup on December 11, which earned a 0.5 national HH rating and 445,096 viewers. That game was also the net's most-watched NHL regular-season telecast ever.
The following presents ratings for NHL games on Versus through 22 games, with comparisons to the same point last season (THE DAILY).
NHL RATINGS ON VERSUS
YR GMS HH RATING HHs VIEWERS M18-34 M18-49 M25-54
'07 22 0.3 186,029 254,558 43,022 100,270 101,988
'06 22 0.2 155,432 204,697 42,464 79,103 71,541
RSN RATINGS FOR NHL TEAMS IN U.S.
TEAM NET GMS HH RATING % +/-
Islanders FSNY 22 0.25 176.0%
Devils FSNY 22 0.36 138.0%
Blues FSN Midwest 16 2.43 125.0%
Rangers MSG 23 1.08 124.0%
Wild FSN North 17 2.62 114.8%
Red Wings FSN Detroit 27 4.64 56.8%
Flyers CSN Philadelphia n/a 2.30 28.0%
Penguins FSN Pittsburgh 28 5.08 21.8%
Capitals CSN Mid-Atlantic n/a 0.50 12.0%
Sharks FSN Bay Area n/a 0.90 6.0%
Ducks FSN Prime Ticket 18 0.27 -3.6%
Blue Jackets FSN Ohio 29 1.04 -9.6%
Kings FSN West 24 0.31 -11.4%
Panthers FSN Florida 24 0.17 -22.7%
Lightning Sun Sports 25 0.66 -25.8%
Stars FSN Southwest 14 0.41 -34.9%
Blackhawks CSN Chicago n/a 0.60 -45.0%
Thrashers SportSouth 20 0.18 -45.5%
Coyotes FSN Arizona 16 0.23 -52.1%
Ratings for the Hurricanes, Predators, Sabres, Bruins and Avalanche were not available.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Call me cynical but until I know the New York numbers are provided by Nielsen to these publications and not Barry Watkins in the P.R department at Msg like the earlier update I'm not sold on these numbers. Msg no doubt was embarassed by poor local hockey ratings for the Rangers and the teams they own broadcast rights too (not the Sabres) so this all seems like another p.r spin campaign by the garden to their sources in the media business.
I also want the FSN-2 numbers which is where many Islander and Devil games appear.
The other markets numbers do seem in line.
New York Times.com: Richard Sandomir's update back in October of 1998 as far as I am concerned best represents what Msg owning the Islanders television right's until 2030 means.