CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

Jun 8, 2004
Source : Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP-AP)--The Stanley Cup final was a bonanza for the CBC and a bust south of the border.

Tampa Bay's 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 drew an average of 4.862 million viewers Monday night, making it the second-highest rated NHL game ever for CBC. Only coverage of Game 7 of the 1994 final between Vancouver and the New York Rangers drew more, with 4.957 million tuning in for the Rangers' 3-2 win.

But those numbers include pre-game and post-game coverage. The game itself Monday drew 5.560 million Canadians, which was up from 5.404 million in 1994.

The entire final averaged 3.735 million viewers--the highest-rated final round since the ratings were introduced in 1989. Last year's final between Anaheim and New Jersey averaged 1.507 million.

All four rounds of the 2004 playoffs averaged 2.154 million viewers, up 35 per cent from last season's 1.593 million.

The record audience for a sporting event in Canada, with more than 10 million English and French-language CBC viewers, was the Canadian men's gold medal hockey win over the U.S. at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

In the U.S., the average rating for the five Stanley Cup final games on ABC were the lowest since the network began broadcasting the final again in 2000.

Monday's game got a 4.2 rating with a 7 share. That's down nine per cent from the 4.6 with an 8 for New Jersey's 3-0 win over Anaheim in Game 7 last year--the highest-rated NHL game since broadcast networks began carrying the final in 1998.

Still, the rating for Monday's game was well above the five-game average of 2.6 with a 5 share.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. Share is the percentage of homes with TVs in use. Each rating point represents about 1.08 million households.

The U.S. ratings were anemic throughout the series. The first two games were on ESPN, with Game 1 tying for the lowest-rated Stanley Cup final game on the cable network since 1990.

© Canadian Press