NBCSN saw a record rating for a hockey game as the USA-Canada men’s semifinal registered a 2.7 rating with an 8 share. It beat the previous record which was USA-Russia last week.
Now USA-Canada has outpaced all Stanley Cup Playoff games and Stanley Cup Final games on NBCSN.
The viewership for USA-Canada was 3.9 million. USA-Russia averaged 4.1 million viewers.
The men’s hockey semifinal paced NBCSN to its best average weekday viewership ever at 1.7 million.
Now for NBC’s primetime, Friday night registered the lowest ratings of the Sochi Games at an 8.8/15, far below the Vancouver Olympics for the comparable Friday night four years ago which had a 13.9/24. Comparing Friday night to Turin in 2006, it’s also down at a 9.7/17.
Viewership for Friday averaged 14.9 million, down from Vancouver’s 24.5 million and Turin’s 15.9 million.
Check out the NBC press release which also includes local ratings for USA-Canada on Friday.
TEAM USA-CANADA OLYMPIC MEN’S HOCKEY SEMIFINAL HIGHEST-RATED HOCKEY GAME EVER ON NBCSN & LEADS NETWORK TO RECORD WEEKDAY DAYTIME VIEWERSHIP
NBCSN Scores “Perfect 10” on Weekdays – Live Sochi Coverage Accounts For 10 Most-Watched Weekday Daytimes in Network’s History
Buffalo, Minneapolis, Boston, Pittsburgh & Providence Top Local Market Ratings for Team USA-Canada Semifinal
Closing Ceremony to Stream Live Via “TV Everywhere” On NBCOlympics.com & NBC Sports Live Extra AppSTAMFORD, Conn. – February 22, 2014 – Canada’s 1-0 victory over Team USA in Friday’s Olympic men’s hockey semifinal (Noon-2:30 p.m. ET/9 a.m-11:30 a.m. PT) posted a 2.7 household rating/8 share to rank as the highest-rated hockey game in NBCSN history, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company. Team USA-Canada topped the previous best NBCSN hockey rating – 2.6 for last Saturday’s thrilling Team USA victory over Russia in an eight-round shootout — and also exceeds the rating for any Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals games in the network’s history.
U.S.-Canada averaged 3.9 million viewers (slightly below the 4.1 million for U.S.-Russia, which benefited from more group viewing on the weekend) leading NBCSN to its best-ever weekday daytime viewership (1.7 million viewers from 6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET). Viewership for the game peaked at 4.6 million from 1:30-2 p.m. ET.
Adding to the consumption of the Team USA-Canada semifinal, the “TV Everywhere” authenticated live stream of the game generated more than 2.1 million unique users (2,122,447) – the most unique users ever for any NBC Sports Digital stream, topping NBC’s non-authenticated Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012 (2.105 million uniques). The 2.122 million unique users is believed to be the largest “TV Everywhere” authenticated streaming audience in U.S. history.
- NBCSN concludes its weekday daytime Sochi Olympic coverage with its 10 live telecasts ranking as the 10-most watched weekday daytimes in the network’s history (6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET).
- Last night’s primetime Olympics on NBC (8:30-11 p.m. ET) averaged 14.9 million viewers and an 8.8 household rating/15 share. The comparable Friday night for the 2006 Turin Games – which featured the Figure Skating Gala (tonight on NBC at 8/7c hosted by Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski and Terry Gannon) – averaged 15.9 million viewers and a 9.7 rating/17 share. The comparable Friday for the live 2010 Vancouver Games, highlighted by the final race for Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Ohno’s eighth and final career Olympic medal-winning performance, averaged 24.5 million viewers and a 13.9 rating/24 share.
- NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app will live stream via “TV Everywhere” the Winter Games Closing Ceremony at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday.
TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR FRIDAY’S TEAM USA-CANADA HOCKEY SEMIFINAL ON NBCSN
Market HH rating/share 1. Buffalo 12.1/28 2. Minneapolis 8.5/21 3. Boston 7.5/22 4. Pittsburgh 7.1/19 5. Providence 6.9/18 6. Chicago 6.2/20 7. Detroit 5.8/14 8. St. Louis 5.5/16 9. Philadelphia 5.3/14 10. New York 5.1/14
That will do it.
