ESPN Viewership for Stanley Cup Finals down year over year

If you're a fan of the National Hockey League, the Stanley Cup playoffs and watching the games on television, you're going to want to focus on the following. It would appear that the average viewership on ESPN of games 1 and 2 year over year compared to last season is down, and it's down considerably.

Last season, the average viewership for games 1 and 2 was around four million viewers. This season, the average is down to around 2.6 million viewers. This can be attributed to several factors, including having two teams from a non-traditional hockey market. However, if that's the case, the National Hockey League may need to do a better job in promoting these markets to rabid hockey fans who are tuning in from traditional markets.


The idea of having two of the best teams playing for the Stanley Cup (with the understanding Florida finished 8th in the Eastern Conference), should be enough for fair weather and hockey-mad fans to be sitting down to watch, however, the reasoning behind the decline may run deeper. It's no secret that many fans are displeased with the content presented to them by the networks and with the individuals providing the content, whether they're in the studio or the arena covering the games live.


Whatever the reason for the decline, the National Hockey League and its media partners need to come back to the table to figure out a strategy to boost their viewership or risk a further decline going into next season.