TV Upfronts

Here's How Turner Sports and ESPN Grew Female NHL Audiences by Double-Digits

Viewership among women this season is up 73% on ESPN and 56% on TNT

nhl-audience-turner-espn-2022 — "Our charge as a partner of the NHL is to keep propelling the game forward," said WarnerMedia's Zudonyi.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

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In the first year of the NHL’s new TV rights deal with Turner Sports and Disney, the networks are not only seeing total audience gains over former rights holder NBC Sports, but an increasingly young and diverse audience—one that has considerably more women than last season.

As playoffs get under way, Turner Sports is averaging 361,000 viewers across 51 telecasts on TNT, up 26% over now-shuttered NBC Sports Network.

But female viewership for NHL on TNT’s regular season live game coverage has increased 56% vs.