NESN will deliver live and exclusive high definition coverage of up to 72 Boston Bruins games during the 2010/11 season, the network's 26th season covering Bruins hockey. The season gets started in historic fashion as the Bruins travel to Prague in the Czech Republic with two games against the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday, October 9th and Sunday, October 10th. NESN's coverage will begin with WB Mason Bruins Face-Off Live at 11:30 AM on Saturday and at 9:30 AM on Sunday.
"Over 25,000 Bruins fans showed up at TD Garden in September to get an early glimpse of Tyler Seguin and the Bruins rookies," said Joel Feld, NESN's executive vice president of programming and executive producer. "NESN knows there is a level of fan passion and excitement this year that will make our coverage more exciting than ever. With the return of our veteran broadcast team and the debut of The Big Bad Bruins Show with Kathryn Tappen, NESN is the definitive source for all Bruins action, news and information."
Former ESPN anchor Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley return for their sixth season together in the NESN broadcast booth. They will be joined by reporter Naoko Funayama who enters her third season with the network. Kathryn Tappen will once again lead NESN’s studio team as host of WB Mason Bruins Face-Off Live, NESN’s intermission coverage and Bruins Overtime Live presented by Ace Ticket. She will once again be joined by former Bruins favorites Mike Milbury, Barry Pederson, and Gord Kluzak.
In a financially motivated decision, Edwards and Brickley will not be in Prague with the Bruins for their season opening games with the Coyotes, calling both games from NESN's studios to save on expenses. However, Funayama will be on-site in Prague. Edwards told Chad Finn of the Boston Globe that the decision, while disappointing is understandable.
Brickley will set the stage for the regular season on Thursday, October 14 at 7:00 PM with The Bricks: 2010/11 Bruins Season Preview; a half-hour special that will look ahead to the coming season and introduce Bruins fans to the team’s exciting off-season additions. Brickley will also make his pre-season predictions about the Bruins and the rest of the league and look back at the team’s season opening trip to Prague.
NESN will launch a new weekly show called The Big Bad Bruins Show on Saturday, October 23 at 6:00 PM. Hosted by Kathryn Tappen, the Original NESN Entertainment production will feature in-depth one-on-one conversations with Bruins players, a regular segment with Bruins President Cam Neely, and weekly reports from reporter Funayama.
The Instigators with Milbury will return for its third season on Thursday, October 28 at 10:30 PM. Milbury holds back nothing when sharing his opinions on the hottest issues and latest controversies in the NHL. Edwards and Brickley will once again mix it up with Milbury on a regular basis along with other special guest commentators including another episode this winter featuring former Bruins coach and hockey icon Don Cherry.
NESN’s in-depth coverage of the Bruins also extends online with NESN.com’s Bruins beat writer Doug Flynn providing daily Bruins news and analysis along with a live blog during every game. Edwards, Brickley, Tappen and Funayama will also contribute regularly over the course of the season. NESN.com offers the network’s best Bruins highlights and interviews in addition to interactive fan forums, polls, photo galleries, quizzes and Top 10 Bruins prospect lists.
NESN’s Bruins coverage also extends to fans outside New England who subscribe to a sports package that includes NESN National, the network’s national television service. NESN’s pre and post-game shows, Bruins in 2 replays, Bruins Classic games, The Bricks, The Big Bad Bruins Show and The Instigators are all available to NESN National subscribers throughout the season. NESN’s Bruins game broadcasts can also be enjoyed outside New England by purchasing the NHL Center Ice package.
NBC Sports’ coverage of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final earned the best overnight rating (4.1 rating and 7 share) for a Game 2 on record (NHL overnight data prior to 1975 is unavailable) and was up 21 percent over last year (3.4, Game 2, Detroit vs. Pittsburgh). The broadcast peaked at a 4.7/8 from 10:30-11 p.m. ET. The Chicago market delivered a 25.1/39, while Philadelphia earned an 18.5/29.
The Stanley Cup Final on NBC again won the night, as it did Saturday for Game 1, finishing No. 1 in primetime (2.4, Adults 18-49).
“These historic viewership numbers are the result of compelling stories and great play on the ice, two markets on fire for their teams, terrific coverage by our North American television partners, and a season’s worth of unprecedented fan engagement on multiple platforms across North America,” said NHL COO John Collins.
Last night’s milestone comes on the heels of healthy ratings for Game 1, which earned the best overnight rating for a Game 1 in 11 years. The 2.8 overnight rating and 6 share was the highest since 1999 (Buffalo vs. Dallas, 3.7 on Fox).
Canada also scored big during Game 1 of the Final with CBC achieving an average audience of 3.16 million, an 83-percent increase from Game 1 in 2009. NBC’s two-game average overnight rating is a 3.5, the best for the first two games of a Stanley Cup Final in 11 years (3.8 on Fox in 1999, Buffalo vs. Dallas) and up 17 percent over last year (3.0).
Top 10 Markets for First Two Games on NBC 1. Chicago – 21.0 2. Philadelphia – 15.9 3. Buffalo – 8.8 4. Pittsburgh – 4.5 5. Indianapolis – 4.0 6. Detroit – 3.8 7. Ft. Myers – 3.5 8. Las Vegas – 3.3 T9. Orlando – 3.2 T9. Columbus – 3.2 T9. St. Louis – 3.2
NON-NHL MARKETS SHOWING HUGE INCREASES
Three non-NHL markets have shown triple digit rating increases for the first two games of the Final led by Seattle, which has seen a remarkable 213 percent rise. Kansas City (+140%) and Memphis (+120) have also earned substantial gains.
DIGITAL STRATEGY PAYS DIVIDENDS
The NHL is engaging and connecting with more fans than ever on its digital platforms and the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs has continued that trend. Some highlights:
• For the first three days of the Stanley Cup Final, page views are up 77 percent over last year and video starts are up 185 percent • For the first 48 days of the playoffs, video starts on NHL.com are up 148 percent over last year • Unique visitors to NHL.com are up 28 percent • Page views are up 50 percent • Mobile page views are up 182 percent • April was the most trafficked month in the history of NHL.com in terms of unique visitors surpassing 17 million • NHL.com ranked as the number two site in terms of percentage change in unique visitors from March to April according to comScore.
TV MILESTONES IN THE 2010 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
• VERSUS' coverage of the first two rounds of 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs was the mostwatched first two rounds on cable on record with an average of 775,000 viewers for the 54 telecasts (Stanley Cup Playoff cable viewership became available by Nielsen for the 1994 playoffs) • NBC and VERSUS have combined for the most-watched first two rounds since 1997 (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2) • Game 1 of the Blackhawks-Sharks series on NBC earned an 11.2 rating in Chicago, beating the Cubs, White Sox and Boston-Orlando broadcasts combined • On Thursday April 22, the Blackhawks, with 278,000 viewers in Chicago, prevailed over some tough local competition: Bulls (255,000 viewers, playoff game against Cleveland and LeBron James), NFL Draft (138,000) and the Chicago Cubs vs. NY Mets (137,000 viewers) • The Flyers Game 7 victory over the Bruins was the most watched Flyers game in Comcast SportsNet history with an 11.7 rating and 345,000 households, topping the previous record set two days earlier. • CBC’s coverage of Game 7 between the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins drew an average audience of 4.24 million viewers, ranking as the sixth largest Stanley Cup Playoff audience in CBC history. • On French language RDS, the Canadiens-Penguins Game 7 was the most-viewed NHL telecast in the network’s history with 2.69 million viewers. • The game also scored on FSN Pittsburgh averaging a 26.4 HH rating, the highest-rated game ever on the network. At one point 43 percent of all households in the Pittsburgh DMA were tuned into FSN. • There were three major Boston-area sports events televised on May 7 and Game 4 of the Bruins-Flyers series scored the best numbers, earning an 8.3 local Nielsen rating (328,000 viewers) on Versus in the Boston metered market besting the Yankees-Red Sox matchup on NESN, which earned a 6.3 local rating (223,000 viewers) to finish in second, while Game Three of the Cavaliers-Celtics NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals earned a 4.1 local rating (142,000 viewers) on ESPN. • TSN's audience of 2.8 million for the Washington-Montreal Game 7 was the highest audience ever recorded for an NHL game on TSN and was the most-watched program on Canadian television Wednesday night in all key demographics. • The Montreal-Washington series ranks as the most-watched playoff series ever on TSN (any round) with an average audience of 1.8 million viewers over seven games.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NHL’S RECORD-BREAKING BUSINESS SUCCESS IN 2009-10
• Corporate sponsorship was up 20 percent • New League partners this season include Geico, Starwood Hotels, Enterprise Rent-ACar, LG Electronics and Hershey’s Canada • Ad spending on NHL® media increased by 37 percent over last season • NHL.com ad revenue is up 50 percent over last year • Revenue from big event platforms, led by the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic®, are up 22 percent over last season • Unique visitors to NHL.com surpassed last year’s record by 32 percent • NHL Game Center Live™ subscriptions were up 25 percent • NHL Network subscribers have increased by 104 percent • Sales at SHOP.NHL.com were up 12 percent from last year’s record • Viewership for NBC’s Game of the Week telecasts were up 13 percent • Ratings for exclusive telecasts on Versus were up 20 percent • NHL Mobile™ reached 1.6 million page views, an increase of 233 percent over last season
Source: Nielsen Media Research US and Nielsen Media Research Canada / BBM
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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to the Forbes SportsMoney blog. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).
New England Sports Network (NESN) earned a 10.3 household rating in the Boston DMA for last night’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Philadelphia Flyers. This is the third highest Bruins game rating in NESN’s 26 year history covering the team behind only last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 7 (14.2) and the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 7 (11.2)
NESN’s ratings in the key demographic categories are also impressive, including a 10.8 for Men 25-54 and an 8.0 for Adults 25-54. The Men 25-54 demo rating was #1 in the Boston DMA on Tuesday night while the Adults 25-54 demo rating was second in the market only to American Idol.
NESN will deliver regionally exclusive coverage of game 7 from TD Garden on Friday, May 14 at 7:00 PM. Jack Edwards (play-by-play) and Andy Brickley (color analyst) will handle the call with Naoko Funayama serving as NESN’s rinkside reporter. NESN’s coverage begins at 6:30 PM with a WB Mason Bruins Face-Off LIVE hosted by Kathryn Tappen who will be joined by Bruins studio analyst Gord Kluzak.
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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).
USA Today is reporting that U.S. viewership of the 2010 NHL playoffs is up a whopping 24 percent, making the number the largest average audience in the past 10 years. In addition, the NHL noted that corporate sponsorship is up 20 percent and that ad spending on NHL media increased by 37 percent over last season.
The first round of the 2010 playoffs have seen some compelling games and apparently the viewers across North American have taken notice. “The first round of the playoffs was dramatic and exciting, and our passionate fans consumed the game on television, online and in arena in a big way,” said NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins. “Fans are enjoying the playoffs and we are now uniquely positioned to engage and serve them in ways we never have before, especially through our digital platforms.”
TSN viewership exhibited the greatest gains in comparison to last year, averaging 1.07 million viewers for the first round of the playoffs. This is an 89 percent increase over 2009. The positive news was not limited to television. Over 17 million unique visitors logged onto NHL.com in April, thus becoming the most-trafficked month in the history of NHL.com.
Although these robust ratings and revenues are encouraging, the NHL is hoping that the early departure of the Washington Capitals and the Phoenix Coyotes from the 2010 playoffs will not slow down this year’s encouraging ratings.
The loss of the Caps hurts. Washington D.C. is reasserting itself as a major hockey television market due to the exciting play of young players like Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Semyon Varlamov.
The Coyotes are the feel-good story of the 2009-2010 season. The franchise, a symbol of the NHL’s attempts at growing the game by bringing hockey to non-traditional markets, has seldom been competitive since relocating from Winnipeg to Arizona. The team’s turnaround this year was unforeseeable, as almost one year ago the franchise was concluding another subpar season and on the brink of filing for bankruptcy protection. Now the team has a new owner, the NHL, and is poised to challenge the Western Conference elite for supremacy.
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Last night’s Bruins-Penguins game garnered a 6.2 household rating which is the highest rated regular season game in NESN’s history.
NESN’s highest rated Bruins game ever was a 14.2 rating for game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Bruins next two games are against the two teams that are trailing them in the Eastern Conference standings with a game against the New York Rangers on Sunday on NBC and a game against the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday night, with coverage beginning at 6:30 PM on NESN.
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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.
DirecTV and VERSUS have settled their dispute that lastest from August till today
THIS IS BREAKING NEWS...
DIRECTV and Comcast have reached an agreement to return VERSUS to the DIRECTV programming lineup today. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
As of publication, the channel had return to DirecTV's channel listing on 603.
VERSUS will return to the same DIRECTV programming packages it was in at the end of August 2009 showing cycling content.
"We are pleased that both sides were able to work out a satisfactory deal to bring this programming back to our customers," said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Strategy and Development, DIRECTV.
"We're excited that we were able to come to a fair agreement that puts VERSUS back in millions of homes with DIRECTV in time for our busy spring programming schedule," said Jamie Davis, president of VERSUS. "We look forward to super-serving these fans with NHL regular-season and playoff coverage, our first live UFC event and much more."
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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).
About a year ago, SportsBusiness Journal reported that the Chicago Blackhawks local TV ratings were up 72.6 percent from the previous year. In 2008-’09, the Blackhawks averaged a 1.07 rating. So far this season, they have already set NHL viewing records on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. December 9, the Blackhawks overtime victory against the New York Rangers drew a 3.03, setting the record. December 23, they broke it again posting a 3.27 in a 3-0 victory against the Boston Bruins.
Comcast SportsNet isn’t the only place the Blackhawks are setting records. WGN-TV announced Dec. 21 that Chicago’s 3-0 victory against the Detroit Red Wings brought in a 4.1 household rating, surpassing their previous 3.3 high. WGN reported its ratings are up 47 percent overall from last season and up 111 percent in adults 25-54.
If you are wondering, the top local TV rating last season was the Buffalo Sabres, blowing away the rest of the league with an 8.87. The next highest was the Penguins with a 6.14. This season, two teams who scored in the 2’s in ratings in 2008-’09 will be facing off in the Winter Classic. Last season the Winter Classic drew 4.4 million viewers, making it the most-viewed NHL regular season game in history.
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VERSUS announced the Washington Capitals vs. Philadelphia Flyers game Tuesday night drew its highest ratings since the NHL joined the network in 2005. The 0.6 edged the previous high which was opening night of this season when the Capitals vs. Boston Bruins got a 0.5. VERSUS says ratings are up 33 percent from last season. The high ratings come despite DirecTV no longer carrying VERSUS due to a contract dispute.
VERSUS deal includes 54 or more NHL games each season as well as coverage of Stanley Cup Playoff games. The network will carry games 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup this season. In January of 2008, the NHL and VERSUS reached an extension of their contract to keep the NHL on VERSUS at least through 2011. This season, the network paid $72.5 million and will pay inflationary costs in the future.
See more on the ongoing battle between DirecTV and VERSUS see the following:
USA Today is reporting that U.S. viewership of the 2010 NHL playoffs is up a whopping 24 percent, making the number the largest average audience in the past 10 years. In addition, the NHL noted that corporate sponsorship is up 20 percent and that ad spending on NHL media increased by 37 percent over last season.
