
Ratings Roundup: 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Skates Through Second Round as Most-Watched on Record By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 - 9:15 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs keeps up the ratings pace through two rounds, the Premier League's Championship Sunday scoops its most-watched day in the U.S., ESPN and ABC's conference semifinals are the highest in eight years, NBC Sports raises its first-ever NTT IndyCar Grand Prix to the highest spot in five years, the UEFA Champions League were up 50%, and the Liga MX Quarterfinals leapfrogs major networks.
2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Continue to Roll to Ratings High
With 34 one-goal games, 15 overtime contests, and four Game 7s through two rounds, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are setting national, local and digital viewership and consumption milestones, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
The highlights include:
For the entire 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, NBC Sports is averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.073 million viewers across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, making it the most-watched playoffs on record through two rounds.
NBC Sports' cable coverage of the 2019 playoffs across NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, is averaging a TAD of 911,000 viewers, making it the most-watched cable delivery on record through the Second Round.
The Second Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs stands as the most-watched Second Round on record, averaging a TAD of 1.621 million viewers across NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app.
Viewers have live streamed more than a half-billion minutes through two rounds (526.8 million), up 39% compared to the same time period last season.
Carolina, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, St. Louis and San Jose all set local ratings records during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The viewership and consumption records are even more impressive considering the absence of many teams from the largest media markets or with strong hockey histories, such as the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and Detroit Red Wings. In addition, the four teams that played in the past two Stanley Cup Finals - the Washington Capitals (2018), Vegas Golden Knights (2018), Pittsburgh Penguins (2017) and Nashville Predators (2017) - were all eliminated in the First Round this year.
Note: The term on record means since 1994, which is the year when People Meters first included cable viewing.
For the 69 games of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, NBC Sports is averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.073 million viewers across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app, making it the most-watched playoffs on record through two rounds. Viewership is up 1% compared to 2018 (1.067 million), which held the previous record through two rounds.
NBC Sports' cable coverage of the 2019 playoffs across NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app, is averaging a TAD of 911,000 viewers, making it the most-watched cable delivery on record through the Second Round and up 10% compared to last year (825,000).
Following are the Top 10 markets for the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs to date across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network:
Buffalo 2.74
Boston 2.38
St. Louis 2.23
Providence 2.04
Columbus, Ohio 1.97
Denver 1.87
Pittsburgh 1.65
Minneapolis-St. Paul 1.39
Raleigh 1.30
Las Vegas 1.14
Second Round
The Second Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs was the most-watched Second Round on record, averaging a TAD of 1.621 million viewers for 24 games across NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. Viewership was also up 3% vs. last year (1.574 million).
Columbus-Boston Game 5, which followed Kentucky Derby coverage in primetime this past Saturday night, averaged a TAD of 4.618 million viewers, ranking as the second-most watched non-Stanley Cup Final NHL game on television since 1993 and up 7% vs. the comparable game in 2018. It trailed only Chicago-Anaheim (4.636 million), which was a Western Conference Game 7 in 2015.
The top cable game of the Second Round was Boston-Columbus Game 4 on NBCSN, which averaged a TAD of 2.065 million viewers and is the network's most-watched Second Round Game 4 on record. It was up 15% from the comparable 2018 game.
Wednesday's exciting Colorado-San Jose Second Round Game 7 averaged a TAD of 1.754 million viewers on NBCSN, making it the most-watched late game in four years (Chi-Ana Game 5, 2.092 million) and up 9% vs. last year's Winnipeg-Nashville Game 7 (1.611 million).
Viewership peaked with nearly 2.1 million viewers. Both Denver and San Jose set viewership milestones for the game. See below.
Digital
Across NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app streaming platforms, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs to date have totaled 526.8 million live minutes, up 39% compared to the same time last year.
This was also the most streamed Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs ever in Average Minute Audience (AMA) and live minutes streamed. The Second Round totalled 255.2 million live minutes, up 29% compared to the complete Second Round last year. The AMA of 59,700 viewers was up 30% year over year.
The Dallas-St. Louis double-overtime Game 7 set Second Round records in AMA, uniques and live minutes. The game delivered an AMA of 103,900 viewers, which stands as the highest AMA on record for a Second Round game. The game's 328,000 uniques and 25.7 million live minutes also rank as the highest on record for a Second Round game.
Colorado-San Jose Game 7 delivered an AMA of 87,700 viewers, which ranks as a Top
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
02/04/2026
HBO and NFL Films have announced Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Sea...
02/04/2026
Haivision has announced the Makito ONE, a single-blade video encoding and decoding platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform combines dual-channel video encoding...
02/04/2026
Telestream has introduced UP.Lens, a cloud-based multiviewer and monitoring serv...
02/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5220, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), marking the company's 60th anniver...
02/04/2026
Net Insight has introduced programmable Trust Boundaries, a feature integrated i...
02/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for SGAI (Server-Guided Ad Insertion) in its playback products, using HLS interstitials. SGAI combines elements of client-side an...
02/04/2026
Riedel Communications' SimplyLive RiMotion R12 replay system is supporting B...
02/04/2026
LTN, a managed IP video transport company, and Ateme, a video compression and de...
02/04/2026
Harmonic has announced that TDF, a broadcast infrastructure operator in France, has deployed Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor and ProStream X Video S...
02/04/2026
Eluvio and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced first-year results...
02/04/2026
The Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports have announced that ION will broadcas...
02/04/2026
ESPN will debut Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T, an alt-cast airing Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Sunday, A...
02/04/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are ...
02/04/2026
ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, ...
02/04/2026
DAZN has announced the launch of DAZN Playmakers, a global influencer program designed to build a network of sports content creators. The programme will give cr...
02/04/2026
Tony Cole, Jessica Lee shift into new roles reporting to ESPN SVP/Content Operations Chris Calcinari....
02/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
02/04/2026
Real-time tracking, virtual production, and Pixar storytelling converge for Apri...
02/04/2026
NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first manned launch toward the moon sin...
02/04/2026
(L-R) Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, and John Magaro appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courte...
02/04/2026
4 - 11 April 2026
VEMIA's latest gear auction is just around the corner, and there's already a wealth of sought-after instruments and studio gear li...
02/04/2026
Little Labs emulation now available to all
The latest Universal Audio plug-in to become available outside of the company's DSP-powered UAD2 platform has...
02/04/2026
SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever
2 April, 2026
Media releases
Santo Cilauro, Ed Kavalee and a host of special guests retur...
02/04/2026
Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return t...
02/04/2026
L3Harris has successfully powered the historic launch of the Artemis II mission, providing propulsion and avionics....
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Already deployed extensively by NBC Sports, FOR-A Corporation will demonstrate GoVertical! AiDi, the real-time 9:16 autocropping feature of viztrick AiDi, durin...
02/04/2026
Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its B...
02/04/2026
Harmonic's Media Processing Solutions Maximize Bandwidth Efficiency for Terrestrial Broadcast Delivery
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that TDF, a...
02/04/2026
NBC Sports Deploys viztrick AiDi to Stream Live Events in 9:16 Mobile-First Formats with Auto Tracking, Development Signals Strategic Shift for FOR-A
Long reco...
02/04/2026
Evergent will showcase new innovations in subscriber lifecycle management and monetization at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas, April 18 22), including:
New advances i...
02/04/2026
Riedel Communications is proud to be part of Binghamton University, State University of New York, Athletics' milestone year, celebrating the university'...
02/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have today announced new, fully managed, cloud-native Master Control services designed to meet the growing operational demand...
02/04/2026
Avid today announced it will showcase new innovations designed to help media companies win in the new media economy at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas Co...
02/04/2026
PlayBox Neo helps AIS PLAY kick-off premier football content direct to fans
PlayBox Neo has provided MIMO Tech with a brand-new major installation to extend it...
02/04/2026
Globo has transitioned its primary content distribution to Secure Reliable Transport over a fully IP-based managed backbone using Synamedia's Quortex PowerV...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem The Danish singer recently performed for the queen of Denmark.
April 1, 2026
By
Editorial Staff
Image by Junia Morrow
Wh...
02/04/2026
Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity Whether he's performing, composing, teaching, or developing instruments, the do-it-all percussionist sees ...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for The Trials of Winnie Mandela
Entertainment
02 April 2026
GlobalSouth Africa
Link copied to clipboard
...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second ...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
The Trailer for Ronaldinho: The One and Only Features Never-Be...
02/04/2026
Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetizati...
02/04/2026
GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to M...