Former Buffalo Sabres star Jack Eichel won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights, but he wasn’t able to make the National Hockey League a local winner over the National Basketball Association in ratings for the championship series of each sports league.
The Buffalo market remains the rare one in the country where ratings for the hockey finals are even close to those for the basketball finals.
I’ll get to the ratings a little later after addressing the more important numbers associated with the price of TV contracts for the two sports.
The disparity between the millions of dollars paid to NBA players compared to NHL players is primarily the result of the difference in TV money the two leagues receive because of the relative interest in the two sports.
The current NBA deal is for more than $2.66 billion a year, and may triple in the next contract when the current deal expires after the 2024-25 season.
People are also reading…
It is a national, not a local issue, affecting more than 200 Nexstar stations. CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox and CW stations are affected as is the cable channel NewsNation.
The current NHL deal in the United States is for $630 million a year, and it expires after the 2027-28 season, meaning the NBA disparity will be even higher by then.
The difference in TV revenue is why fans are reading about NBA players such as Nikola Jokic, Bradley Beal, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Devin Booker signing multi-year deals for $45 million to $54 million a year, while top NHL players such as Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin and Auston Matthews have deals for between $11-12 million a year.
To put McDavid's, Panarin's and Matthews' deals in more context, Miami Heat role player Max Strus just signed a four-year, $63 million deal to play in Cleveland, and role player Austin Reaves signed a four-year, $56 million contract to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers after having a strong end of the season and playoff run.
In other words, good role players in the NBA can make more money than superstars in the NHL.
Now on to the ratings.
The nominations for the Television Critics Association Awards often foreshadow the nominations for television’s Emmy Awards, which will be announced July 12.
Nationally, the 2023 NBA Finals, this time, drew more than four times the viewers than the Stanley Cup Final.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Denver's five-game victory over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals averaged 11.64 viewers nationally, down 6 percent from the 2022 NBA Finals, when the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics in six games. The difference in market sizes this season compared with 2022 undoubtedly was key in the decline.
According to SportsMedia Watch, Vegas' five-game series victory over the Florida Panthers in this year’s Stanley Cup Final averaged 2.6 million viewers nationally, down 43 percent from Colorado’s six-game series victory over Tampa Bay in 2022.
It added that Vegas’ 9-3 rout in game five was the least-watched clinching victory in 29 years.
In Buffalo, Vegas’ five-game series victory over Sam Reinhart and the Panthers averaged a 4.0 local rating on cable’s TNT, TBS and TruTV.
This is what I’m thinking:
The Nuggets’ five-game series victory led by Jokic and Jamal Murray over Jimmy Butler and the Heat averaged a 4.8 rating on WKBW-TV (Channel 7), the local ABC affiliate.
A rating point in Buffalo is equal to 6,375 households.
The NBA clinched the victory here with a series high 6.7 Nielsen rating for Denver’s clincher in Game 5.
Vegas’ 9-3 victory in its deciding Game 5 had a combined 4.4 local rating on TNT and TruTV and wasn’t carried on TBS. Of course, the one-sidedness of the game undoubtedly led to local viewers abandoning the game before Eichel raised the Stanley Cup.
Despite Eichel and Reinhart’s presence, the local Stanley Cup Final ratings this season were even lower than they were in 2022.
"I didn’t go into Season 2 with high expectations that it could duplicate Season 1, which is bound to get several Emmy nominations in a few weeks," Pergament says.
The Colorado Avalanche’s six-game series win led by MVP Cale Makar over the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning averaged a 4.8 rating on local ABC affiliate WKBW. The Avs clincher in Game 6 was the highest-rated game at a 6.4.
In 2022, the Warriors’ six-game series win led by MVP Steph Curry over the Celtics averaged a 5.4 local rating on WKBW, with a 6.4 rating for Game 5 the highest rated of the six.
Nationally, the NBA Finals had more than three times the viewership of the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, averaging 12.4 million viewers to the Stanley Cup’s 4.6 million average.
The NHL’s overall loss in 2022 here also was a result of a lopsided loss. Colorado’s 7-0 win in Game 2, a non-competitive game that averaged a 2.9 rating here and lowered the series average.
There are some slight differences to note about the Buffalo numbers.
Award-winning actress Christine Baranski, CBS News anchor Jeff Glor, WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) weathercaster Maria Genero and WKSE-FM (98.5) morning personality Janet Snyder headline the 2023 class of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
Vegas’ rout in the clinching game was only one of the asterisks associated with the NBA’s victory here.
The start times of the games were mostly only 15 minutes apart and didn’t appear to be a factor.
But unlike last season, the NBA had an advantage by being on a broadcast channel, though that advantage isn’t as strong as it used to be.
The Stanley Cup Final also may have had additional viewers on the CBC affiliate carried here. No local Nielsen rating is available for that channel.
SportsMedia Watch reported that TNT’s non-exclusive broadcast of Florida’s Game 7 win over the Boston Bruins in the first round was the most-watched game of the playoffs, with 3.1 million viewers.
The early exit of the Bruins, who were favored to win the Cup, undoubtedly was a key factor in this year’s ratings decline for the Stanley Cup Final.
