Ratings Roundup: Flyers-Bruins at Lake Tahoe Becomes Most-Watched NHL Regular Season Game in NBCSN History By SVG Staff Friday, February 26, 2021 - 1:15 pm
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Ratings roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Philadelphia Flyers-Boston Bruins at Lake Tahoe becomes the most-watched NHL regular season game in the history of NBC Sports Network, the U.S. Women's National Team garners a large audience for their SheBelieves Cup matches, and more.
Flyers-Bruins at Lake Tahoe Becomes Most-Watched NHL Regular Season Game in NBCSN History Amidst the spectacular and picturesque backdrop of Lake Tahoe, this weekend's NHL Outdoors games produced numerous viewership milestones across NBC Sports, including the most-watched regular-season game in NBCSN's 15-year history of televising NHL games for Sunday night's Flyers-Bruins game. On Saturday, Golden Knights-Avalanche began in the afternoon on NBC but was delayed for hours due to sunshine making the ice unplayable, and ultimately finished after midnight on NBCSN.
Following are highlights:
Sunday: Flyers vs. Bruins on NBCSN
Despite a lopsided 7-3 Bruins victory over the Flyers, Sunday night's game averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.068 million viewers, making it the most-watched NHL regular season game ever on NBCSN, surpassing the previous record of 978,000 viewers set earlier this year on opening night for Penguins-Flyers (Jan. 13).
With 1.019 million TV-only viewers, it was the first time that an NHL regular-season game exceeded 1.0 million viewers on NBCSN. Flyers-Bruins is also the most-watched NHL regular-season game on cable in 19 years, since Sharks-Red Wings in 2002 (ESPN; 1.278 million).
Sunday night's contest is now the most-streamed NHL regular-season game in NBC Sports Digital history in both Average Minute Audience (49,700 viewers) and live minutes (7.8 million).
Locally, Boston delivered a 6.69 household rating for the game, making it the market's best delivery for an NHL regular-season game on NBCSN since the 2014-15 season opener (Phi-Bos; 10/8/14; 7.80 HH rating). Philadelphia scored a 4.07 local HH rating.
Saturday: Golden Knights vs. Avalanche on NBC & NBCSN
Viewership for the Avalanche's 3-2 victory over the Golden Knights on Saturday is divided into two parts. After starting at 3 pm ET on NBC, the game was delayed for hours due to sunshine that made the ice unplayable. It eventually restarted at midnight ET on NBCSN.
NBC's portion of Saturday's game (3-4:30 pm ET) averaged a TAD of 1.398 million viewers, up 30% compared to NBC's NHL regular-season TAD last season, excluding the Winter Classic.
Despite missing out on what likely would have been the most-watched portion of the game from 4:30-6 p.m. ET, Golden Knights-Avalanche on NBC surpassed two recent Stadium Series games: 2020 Kings-Avalanche (1.013 million) and 2018 Leafs-Capitals (1.117 million).
The TV-only viewership of 1.356 million viewers for Saturday's afternoon portion is up 19% vs. the comparable timing of the Kings-Avalanche Stadium Series game last season (1.139 million TV-only viewers), which was played in primetime.
The NBCSN portion of the game (midnight-2 a.m. ET) averaged a TAD of 394,00 viewers, making it the most-watched late night* NHL regular-season game since last season's Sharks-Golden Knights opener (401,000 viewers; 10:55 p.m. - 1:17 a.m. ET).
The TAD of 394,00 viewers for Golden Knights-Avalanche is also up 77% compared to NBCSN's regular-season late night* TAD last season (222,000 viewers for an entire game).
Saturday night's TV-only average of 361,000 viewers is up 109% vs. post-midnight TV-only viewership for regular-season games on NBCSN last season (173,000 TV-only viewers). (NBC Sports)
FOX Deportes Sets Daytona 500 Viewership Record Sunday's Daytona 500 on FOX Deportes set a network record as the highest-rated motorsports telecast of all time. 58,000 total viewers tuned into the debut of the 2021 Nascar Cup Series on FOX Deportes and 50,000 fell into the P18-49 demographic
FOX Deportes Scores Big Number for FIFA Club World Cup Final The match between Bayern Munich (Germany) and Tigres (Mexico) averaged 344,000 total viewers. It was the most-watched Club World Cup final in Spanish since 2017 and was +21% in total viewers compared to last year's final. Sunday's Semifinal match featuring Tigres against Palmeiras (Brazil) and the final combined for 716,000 viewers.
Univision's TUDN Nets Largest Viewership for UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Match Ever in the U.S. Univision's afternoon telecast of Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain shattered previous TV highs in the states, averaging 1.07 million Total Viewers P2+ and out-delivering last year's Barcelona-Napoli match (8/8/20 on Univision) by 10% to become the No. 1 UEFA Round of 16 match ever in the U.S. The match also drew 573,000 Adult 18-49 viewers, marking the second highest performance for the round in the demo all-time and best in six years (Man City vs. Barcelona 2/24/15 on FS1).
USWNT in the SheBelieves Cup 498,000 viewers watched the U.S. Women's National Team defeat Canada 1-0 in the SheBelieves Cup Tournament on Thursday, Feb. 19. The match was up 78% from last year's tournament average. (Twitter)
568,000 viewers tuned into the USWNT 2-0 victory over Brazil on Sunday, Feb. 21. The match, which was up 103% from last year's average, was the most-watched match in the tournament's history on FS1 and was the third most-watch non-Women's World Cup on the channel. (Twitter)
