No Canada: NHL playoff ratings plummet north of the border
With no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs, TV ratings have plunged north of the border.
Viewership is down by nearly 60 percent through the first week of the postseason compared to last spring, when there were five Canadian teams competing.
The numbers are a concern but not a surprise to Sportsnet President Scott Moore, who played a role three years ago in securing the Toronto-based cable giant's 12-year, $5.2 billion (Canadian) bid to secure Canadian NHL broadcasting rights.
Moore is disappointed but not panicked seeing first-round playoff viewership decline from 1.3 million to about 500,000 in the second year of the deal.
By comparison, Canadian ratings are still out-pacing those in the U.S., where NBC is averaging about 484,000 viewers. That's up by about 30,000 over last year.
