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NHL > General NHL > NHL Playoffs Start: Ratings show no pent-up US demand for it

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April 15, 2012, 10:49 AM

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The NHL now has national TV coverage but the start of the playoffs is exposing one simple fact - there's no pent-up demand in the USA for it. The marginal increases of a few tens of thousands watching the first days of these playoffs still leaves hockey struggling behind regular season BBall matchups and on par with Baseball our boring national pastime. It's in the order of 2-4 times more fans watching always basketball regular season games nationally, than watching playoff hockey. That is embarrassing (despite the spin NBCSN and hockey friendly media want to put on it, when events coverage only mentions percentage increases over past performance without mentioning absolute numbers you know "the spin is in").

Below is a snapShot of TV ratings Thursday 4/12/12: courtesy of Fulton Critic & Neilsen Ratings
NBA Basketball: Miami/Chicago - TNT
3.671 million viewers, #2; 2.057 million adults 18-49 (1.6 rating)
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NHL Playoffs: Washington/Boston - NBCSN
0.576 million viewers, #12; 0.315 million adults 18-49 (0.2 rating)
NHL Playoffs: Chicago/Phoenix - NBCSN
0.499 million viewers, #13; 0.370 million adults 18-49 (0.3 rating)
NHL Playoffs: San Jose/St. Louis - CNBC
0.320 million viewers, #14; 0.178 million adults 18-49 (0.1 rating)

The NBA regular season game thoroughly thrashed all 3 hockey playoff games COMBINED !!!!

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May 7, 2012 09:54 AM ET

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Can you blame the ratings dip? Just by watching these games on tv and seeing the way the referees work just make want to turn it off. I mean Pittsburgh lost a game due to a bad offside that wasn't called. If you ask me I think the NHL should adopt the NFL rule of every scoring play gets reviewed. It would only take about be second of there time. That's why the NHL sucks right now. 2 the playoff seeds are a joke. They need to make it on points, not that hole gay division bull. I mean it works for the nfl cause they play only one game. The NHL? A best of seven. So who cares about home field. I think the top teams deserve home games anyways. I find the playoff system all a hoax. Plus I thought you always want to see the top teams in the finals? This is why the NHL playoffs suck.