Hockey endures in spite of the Leafs

You might think, what with the Toronto Maple Leafs being out of the playoff race since opening night, that hockey ratings would take a tumble. But despite the dismal Leafs being the featured attraction every Saturday night on CBC,  ratings are actually up.

According to BBM Nielsen Media Research, ratings for Game 1, which involves the Leafs in most markets, are averaging 1.176 million. That's   6 per cent ahead of last season. Game 2 audiences (702,000) are 4 per cent ahead of last year's pace.

Following are the top-rated sports shows of the weekend, which not surprisingly are dominated by hockey and curling. Missing from the list are the World Baseball Classic, which attracted 172,000 viewers for Sunday's Japan-U.S. game on Rogers Sportsnet.

Also absent, as always, is basketball. The Raptors drew only 103,000 to TSN on Friday, though the team's dismal performance has a lot to do with that. So does the apparently interminable TSN2 situation with Rogers, which is hardly encouraging new fans while turning off a lot of old ones.

As for the much-hyped March Madness, the best The Score could do was 97,000 viewers for the Siena-Louisville game on Sunday.  No doubt more viewers tend to watch on CBS, but it does indicate the madness isn't quite as widespread north of the U.S. border.

There, CBS ratings are up 6 per cent over last year and averaged more than 5 million viewers in the first two rounds. The Scored averaged 58,000.

Here are the most-watched programs from the weekend:

1. Hockey Night In Canada, early game, Saturday, CBC: 1,274,000

2. Hockey Night In Canada, Canucks at Coyotes, Saturday, CBC: 779,000

3. Curling, Canada Cup men's final, Sunday, TSN: 446,000

4. Ottawa at N.Y. Rangers, Sunday, TSN: 389,000

5. Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 343,000

6. Curling, Canada Cup women's final, Sunday, TSN: 276,000.

Comments

[JK]

With the Score having less commercials and jumping more between NCAA games, I'm not sure that more people watched on CBS - why would they?

Unless they had a rooting interest in a team that CBS Buffalo was focusing on and/or only have basic cable and/or are really irritated by Score's ticker, I can't see CBS getting more action.

[Sanj]

Just goes to show that Leaf fans will watch anything the Maple Leafs throw out whether it be crap or not.

[Pension Plan Puppets]

That's so true Sanj! How weird that Leaf fans would watch their team on television. What a strange world we live in.

[Rick Grace]

The Raptors do 103,000. That schoolboy basketball does 90,000. Other NBA numbers do test pattern ratings. Bottom line is the NBA is the dregs of TV sports in CAnada. Judging by the numbers, not even people in Toronto care about the NBA.

And to those who rag on curling. The curling drew 4 times the ratings the Raptors got. So guess your opinion is the tiny minority. Just like being a basketball fan is.

[Jon Coleman]

Conveniently missing from this blog is the fact that The Score's average of 58,000 viewers for March Madness is a 49% increase over last year's numbers (39,000).
A 6% and 4% increase grabs your attention, but a 49% increase doesn't warrant mention. Is that because it would crush your theory that Canadians don't care about March Madness?
Basketball is exploding in this country ... like it or not, get used to it!!!

[Doug]

I beg to differ in regards to the NCAA I watched it all as did a lot of my colleagues from work and friends I know and we all watched it on CBS...no one I know watched it on the score...plus on CBS with time-shifting, and different regionalized stations I watched all the games I wanted at one time just by channel surfing...the Score is not in the mindset or viewing habits of a lot of people...

[Clarkie 90210]

I watched both The Score and CBS (and I have time shifting). The Score did show a bit more game coverage. Sadly, some of the time was devoted to Tim and Sherm shooting paper balls into an old school Raptor mini basket.

I disagree with Jon Coleman's "basketball is exploding theory". While there is modest interest in NCAA hoops, CIS Basketball has zero coverage and the Raps ratings are dismal, and on a network not everyone has. I know a winning team would help, but it will not approach hockey numbers.

[Mike]

Also not mentioned is that much of the 1st round is played during the workday. Meaning that most people have to watch the games online at http://mmod.ncaa.com/ which had more than 5 million unique views over the 1st weekend. Wonder if Chris ever considered this and how many of those viewers were Canadian?

And rick the curling fan, how many of those 446,000 were under 50? And actual sports fans who don't just watch that and figure skating?

[moose]

US timeshifting channels aren't a free option for every digitial tv provider. And digitial TV penetration is below 10% (06-07 data by BBM). While Score is usually part of a 2nd tier cable package. So, your experience of people watching CBS isn't likely indicative of the general population - though I agree Score isn't top of the mind - even for sports junkies.

For Jon jumping up and down about the increase in Score ratings - it's a huge % increase on a small base. 58k is the league of a typical canned non-live program on TSN i.e. fishing, poker shows. And 103k on a Friday night for Raptors basketball is simply bad.

[Peter Brown]

Although many Canadian NCAA hoops fans, including me, watch The Score in the first two rounds because they switch games better and show fewer commercials than does CBS, this tendency is lessened in the later rounds when there are fewer overlaps between games. Once we get to the Elite Eight and Final Four, I would guess that the vast majority of viewers are watching CBS, not The Score. And Canadian Nielsen ratings can't (or choose not to) capture audiences for U.S. channels when they are not simulcasts. And The Score (& Sportsnet & TSN) *cannot* simulcast over a U.S. broadcast network signal on cable or satellite even if they wanted to (only Cdn. broadcast networks can do the channel replacement thing). So, these numbers that Chris Zelkovich throws around are completely meaningless unless and until BBM/Nielsen starts to capture the whole audience.

[Rick Grace]

I don't know. The Raptors were exlusive to TSN, and they only did 100,000 viewers nationally. Why would you expect this who cares student basketball to do any better? And while I'm not a curling fan, why do people who hate curling always say its for old people? Because curling ratings have actually gotten better and better every year. While basketball gets worse and worse.
The numbers don't lie, despite how many of your freinds watch basketball.