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Kukla's Korner Hockey

Opening Night Ratings

by Paul on 10/07/05 at 10:24 AM ET
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Hockey's return to the ice for its first opening night in two years was a success for OLN, though it rated lower than ESPN's opening night in 2003. And regional sports networks showed strong ratings in hockey's return. OLN's inaugural NHL telecast included four solid hours of hockey in primetime, including the New York Rangers-Philadelphia Flyers faceoff from Philadelphia. Nielsen Media Research said the game averaged a 0.42 household rating and 353,000 viewers, much better than season-to-date averages and comparisons with last year. It fell short of ESPN's opening-night national telecast of three games in October 2003, which averaged a 0.54 rating and 476,000 households. But ESPN2 has more distribution than Comcast, which is available in only about 64 million homes nationwide compared with ESPN's 88 million. update 8:51am, Huge Ratings For TSN from Slam via the Ottawa Sun,

If you're thinking Canadians seemed more wound up than usual about opening night in the NHL ... well, let's just say nobody knows that better than the folks at TSN. Wednesday's season-opening doubleheader shattered all records for NHL viewership on the network, and rated as one of the most-watched nights in TSN's 21-year history. "It exceeded our wildest expectations," said an incredulous TSN president Phil King. "Hockey is back in a huge way, that's for sure. It was just unbelievable." A few numbers for your consideration. The Senators-Leafs early game, combined with a regional Flames-Wild telecast in Alberta, pulled in 2.1 million viewers. It peaked at 2.7 million during the overtime and shootout won by the Sens.

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update 1:18pm, More from Media Week...

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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