The NHL has a big fanbase in North America, especially in the United States and Canada. There are a lot of players competing from these regions of the world in the biggest ice hockey leagues ever under top franchises. However, like every sport, the NHL also has its flaws and issues looming in it that sometimes ruin a fan’s experience of getting to navigate through the sport.

Recently, the league has seen a big drop in viewership; even if major broadcasters like ESPN and TNT have the rights to the matches, they are struggling to get those numbers. And this has come to the attention of the fans on social media, and they are nothing but frustrated with the way the NHL is heading.

As reported by Awful Announcing, Sports Media Watch’s Braylon Breeze provided some statistics that caught the attention of many. On his X profile, he shared those, stating, “Thursday’s Sharks-Kraken contest on ESPN averaged just 175,000 viewers, the lowest-viewed NHL on ESPN game for this season to date. The game received a small lead-in, for ESPN standards, which was a women’s college basketball game between Tennessee-Texas (390K). Sharks-Kraken was the lowest-viewed program on ESPN for last Thursday.”

While competing with the WNBA is no joke, the NHL surely has hit the lowest of the lows in the viewership. And the San Jose Sharks vs. the Seattle Kraken provided the statistic that might become a concern to look forward to for the officials managing this particular avenue in the league. Indeed, these are weekday games, and there might be some changes when it comes to the weekend games. Is there, though?

Breeze also provided the statistics from the Saturday games, stating, “ABC Hockey Saturday Viewership: Blackhawks-Panthers averaged 723,000 viewers in the opening window, while the Rangers-Bruins drew a season-high 1.1 million viewers in the later window. There was no comparison to last year. ABC’s season average stands at 888,000 viewers, with three games already surpassing 1 million viewers—compared to just five for the entirety of last season.”

Now, this is surely a huge difference, comparing the two statistics provided by the analyst on social media. However, this did catch the attention of the public on social media too, who were not happy with the NHL when it came to broadcasting. There are a lot of issues, and a few were pointed out when this particular report was shared on Reddit.

Fans need the NHL to listen to them

While the NHL is falling off the grid, the competitors are securing a ton of attention out there with their rising fanbase day by day. This has left many fans worried about the sport, as one stated, “The NHL has made it so hard to watch games. They need to launch a streaming service with all games, no blackouts. Otherwise the league will continue to decline in viewership.” Another fan gave a recent example, stating, “NHL blackouts ruin the sport..Tonight for example the Avs – Oilers game is blacked out here..This should be a national televised game.?? Who exactly are they blacking out other than fans.??”

“Viewership is lacking. How can we fix this? I know. Black out the games people want to see. That will bring I the viewers. -I wish it was sarcastic, and I think it hits close to the truth.” A fan gave a sarcastic remark. So what is this blackout that the fans are mentioning? When it comes to broadcasting, the NHL is quite difficult to understand. Indeed, each team has contracts with their local networks, and this gives them exclusivity to stream on that particular channel, causing major broadcasters like ESPN, TNT, and others to be blacked out. 

Surely, this is frustrating for many fans who want to watch their favorite team from a different region, as this fan pointed out, stating, “Lmfao I’ll never understand these leagues. ‘Lets blackout local teams & then wonder why people don’t watch’ The real fans just stop paying for your sh**ty service & stream for free and the new fans watch what they have access to. No s*** ratings are down.” Another user wrote, “Hmm. Looks like those blackouts aren’t increasing viewership after all.”

With the way this situation is heading, the NHL has to take some initiatives. Indeed, the NHL already maintains a niche fanbase and cannot afford to lose them due to the ongoing broadcasting issues. So with a proper solution, the league might also attract many newer fans to them, which will overall be beneficial to the NHL.