At Home Hockey: An Analysis of Subpar National TV Viewership for the NHL

Ice hockey is widely recognized as one of the most exciting sports to watch and the NHL boasts very good in-game attendance figures when compared to similar professional sports leagues. In this study, we compare the NHL to the NBA, two leagues that share the same size stadiums and in-game attendance numbers but show huge disparities in national television viewership. The most watched NHL game of 2022/23, game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals totaled 2.72 million viewers nationally. The most watched NBA game of the 22/23 season was the final game of the NBA Finals, totaling 17.88 million viewers nationwide. This is especially startling given the fact that on the local level, in cities with both NHL and NBA teams, the local ratings are relatively even and oftentimes favor the NHL team. To investigate why this discrepancy exists, four cities home to both an NHL and NBA franchise were chosen as the focus of the research. Youth participation and cost of both basketball and ice hockey were examined in each city and it was determined that they account for a large portion of the differences in national TV viewership. Marketing strategies of each league were also investigated, but it was found that these had little impact on the discrepancies in national TV viewership. The study concludes with possible solutions for the NHL to decrease costs and increase accessibility to play, resulting in an increase in youth participation, especially in nontraditional hockey markets without NHL teams. In turn, this will bridge the gap in national viewership between themselves and the NBA.