NHL viewership trending in a horrible direction: Gary Bettman in trouble

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Daniel Lucente
October 15, 2024 (9:23)

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The NHL is not getting the viewers it truly desires, with the latest numbers showing a lot less people have been tuning into games on their televisions.

A new report from Drew Lerner of the sports broadcasting blog 'Awful Announcing' gives some unsettling news for the NHL: viewership has dropped steeply to start the year. Per Lerner, the league's marquee games have fallen off well behind competitors like Major League Baseball and, most surprisingly, even the WNBA. This raised concerns whether or not the NHL was in jeopardy of not being able to hold onto their audience.

Opening night averaged only 559,000 viewers for the NHL's three-game slate, down a whopping 39% versus last year's season opener. This is an alarming drop for any league, especially since the NHL generally expects a high return from their first games. It is one thing to lose viewers to playoff baseball; it is another thing altogether when more people watched the WNBA, which pinpoints a deeper problem with the league.

This is a surprise to some, perhaps, but not anymore to those others who have been paying attention to the evolving sports marketplace. As Lerner alluded to, the core fan is older, and the subscribing and streaming, and accessing of games is getting too difficult for them to operate. Meanwhile, the younger generations are more tech-savvy and simply don't care much for the sport. In a landscape where sports fans have more options now than ever, the NHL risks falling behind.

Meanwhile, the NHL still has some outdated broadcasting models, probably none as icky as regional restrictions that block fans from viewing games in their local markets. For 2024, this is not only unnecessary but frustrating for those fans seeking ease of access to their favorite teams. Then there are those sorts of barriers that might turn potential viewers away and make it more difficult for a league to grow or retain its loyal base.

These are the structural issues that will need to be dealt with if the NHL wants to buck this trend and create a more mainstream fan base. For starters, removing those regional restrictions would be a good place to start in terms of letting everyone into your league. Failing to do so will risk alienating current fans and prevent new ones from joining the league, with perhaps long-term effects on league relevance and prosperity.