Lots of People Watch Hockey

By Noah Davis 

We told you hockey was going to be huge.

VERSUS dropped the puck on its sixth year of NHL coverage with the most-watched opening night game on U.S. cable in eight years and the most-watched NHL regular season cable telecast in six years. In Canada, CBC’s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA attracted record audiences for its Saturday night debut this weekend.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Advertisement

Hey, NHL COO John Collins. How do you feel about this development?

“Fans worldwide have proven again and again that they have a voracious appetite for NHL content,” he said. “The record numbers for the start of the
season, on the heels of last year’s success, are a strong indication that we have a compelling product and that we are super serving our audience
through a variety of different platforms. Whether it’s on TV, online, on mobile devices or through these new
partnerships, we are reaching our audience in new and exciting ways.”

Voracious!

And then there’s this…

The top 10 countries in NHL.com traffic and their UV increases over last year:

1. Finland +68 percent
2. Russian Federation +58 percent
3. Slovakia (Slovak Republic) +53 percent
4. Germany +42 percent
5. Czech Republic +37 percent
6. United Kingdom +35 percent
7. Switzerland +33 percent
8. Sweden +27 percent
9. Canada +15 percent
10. United States +12 percent

Advertisement