ESPN Under Fire for Embarrassing Viewership Numbers

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Wade Messier
June 7, 2023 (7:11 PM)

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ESPN has done a mediocre job promoting the NHL since they acquired their TV rights a couple of years ago. Many fans have criticized the network, but their newest viewership numbers are just embarrassing.

ESPN's Numbers Are Falling

ESPN released their viewership numbers for the first two games of this year's Stanley Cup Final, and the results compared to last year are flat-out embarrassing.

That's right, viewership throughout the first two games this year is down 1.6 million. Truly embarrassing for the NHL and ESPN.

Breaking Down the Numbers

The first two Stanley Cup Final games last year garnered a total of 4 million viewers, for an average of 2 million a night. This year, those numbers have dropped to 2.6 million viewers throughout the first two games, for an average of 1.3 million viewers a night.

How did the league manage to lose 700,000 viewers a night for their biggest event of the year? One popular theory is that fans aren't watching due to the matchup itself.

Many NHL fans are angry at the success of the Vegas Golden Knights and view the team as the NHL's baby who they love to prop up. Florida on the other hand is a small market team, with a fairly small fanbase, so it makes sense that they wouldn't draw very many viewers.

How can the NHL fix this glaring issue?

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