Why was the 2007 NHL All-Star Game get a low rating of television watchers this year?

Question

I was reading an article online today that the 2007 NHL All Star Game in Dallas got a very low televison rating and is down by 76% from the last NHL All Star Game in 2004. There was only 672,948 viewers watching the game while 1,985,000 watched the game in 2004 and more people watched American Idol than the 55th NHL All Star Game with 37 Million Viewers.

My question is, why did the NHL All Star Game get such low television ratings in the United States for the 2007 All Star Game?

The article I read was the following;

http://wxyz.com/wxyz/sports/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15940_5311921,00.html

I think that the following reasons why the NHL All Star Game did not get high television ratings;

1. The game was on a Wednesday and not on a Sunday where more people could watch the game.

2. The game was on a television network that unless you have cable, you could not watch.

3. the game could not compete against American Idol which has a high televison rating.

Answer 1

It's because it was on Versus, a channel that is not even available in most markets. In the markets where it is available, it is usually only available as part of a bundle on the most expensive cable packages.

The NHL is paying for this blunder. ESPN will probably pick up the NHL next season, and all will be right with the world once again.

Answer 2

No doubt the channel coverage had a big effect, but perhaps another reason was that all star games, particularly in the NHL are seldom worth watching. They are pernniel no-hitters where the players powder puff around on the ice, going through the motions with absolutely nothing on the line and no reason to really compete. A top flight player in the NHL cannot afford to take risks in a meaningless game like this with the playoff stretch drive right around the corner.
If any of you had the misfortune to view the "Young" Stars debacle.....that may also have had an effect on the All Star game because it was absolutely a pathetic display, not even befitting the pond hockey description most analysts labelled it with.

Don Cherry might have the best idea for it. Make it worth winning! Apparently for some of these gazillionaire players $50G and a trip to the Bahamas would make it worth working for.

Answer 3

As hockey fan for 45 years I can tell you why. It stinks.
The last 10 or 15 years, the owners wised up to what it might cost them if they lost one of their superstars to an injury at an All Star game. Since then the little girls like Brett Hull and Jeremy Roenick, jumped on the bandwagon, and now these clowns don't even feel like they owe the ticket holders a show. It's not hockey. The may as well all wear panties and pirouette up and down the blulines. No die hard watches the allstar game. Its the one we use to take the wife out, and point out that we are missing an ALL STAR game, because we'd rather be with them. Then, hopefully they'll shut up untill the playoffs are over. So to sum up, less viewership = crappy product. Pack it in, the All Star game is a joke. Especially with the every team being represented crap. I want to see the 40 best players in the league. I dont care if all of them are from only 3 teams. Thats what ALL STAR means.
Fair? Theres no fair! It's HOCKEY. Or .. it was.

Answer 4

well here in Canada on CBC (HNIC) the ratings where high, but yes one reason is cause it was on a Wednesday and it was on a shitty cable station called Versus and from what i hear not everyone gets to see it in the US. that sucks. even in Dallas the T.V ratings where very low.

NHL All-Star TV rating plunges 76 percent from 2004
Wednesday night's game in Dallas drew a 0.7 Nielsen rating on Versus, the cable channel formerly known as OLN. The game was viewed in an estimated 474,298 households and by 672,948 viewers, down from the 1,985,000 households that saw the 2004 All-Star game on a Sunday afternoon on ABC.

The 7.1 rating in Buffalo was by far the largest in any U.S. market.

In host city Dallas, the game was only the 18th most-watched cable program with a 0.5 rating. The national rating is the percentage of U.S. television households tuned to a program, and each point represents about 1.1 million homes.

Wednesday's most-watched show, American Idol on Fox, drew an estimated 37 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour.




GO HABS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Answer 5

The station it was carried on, Versus is not carried by all cable networks, and most people do not watch Versus on a regular basis. I think Gary Bettman and the higher ups of the NHL better get on the ball and get a contract with more widely watched TV Companies.

Answer 6

well i tryed to watch it, i live an hour north of dallas and it wasn't on cable. no espn, not even the local station that shows all of the stars game. i was so mad, you'd think being an hour north i could watch it, eh? no. that's probably why it had low ratings, cause so many people intended to watch it (like i had a few friends and my parents wanting to watch it), but no station would carry it because of the lockout stuff. So i think unless you had dish or like NHL station (or in canada) you couldn't see it.

I'm still angry about that. and then they are showing the stars game on NBC right now *rolls eyes*

Answer 7

You answered your question right there. I agree with all of that. It's stupid to have your All-Star game on a weekday. Baseball can get away with it because it's the "national pastime" but the NFL and NBA do it on the weekends. Being on Versus doesn't help either...I can't remember what channel that is half the time.

Answer 8

It was on Vs. not everyone gets most people never heard of it. Lets all jsut sit back and clap our hands to the NHL for driving a great sport even further into the ground

Answer 9

Simple it was the middle of the week on a channel most people don't get. It is a game played for fun and would get more attention on the weekend, espically with no Football this weekend. No surprise it had so few viewers really.

Answer 10

It's because of three things:

1. Its not on a weekend
2. Its on Versus instead of NBC
3. More people care about horrible singers than they do for Crosby and Ovechkin