Playoff TV ratings down a ‘shocking’ 61 percent in Canada

No surprise here.

Wow those numbers are crazy. Hopefully people in both countries start to tune in when the next round arrives.

Thanks for all your posts Lipps man. They are always interesting and informing

It's not just due to Canadian teams this has been trending this way for a while now. You must forget I posted this exact same thing the past two seasons. Last season was the least watched staneley cup finals in the history of canadian television so it is more than just canadian teams not being there because people always watched the cup and it did not matter who was there and last season the numbers were brutal. The bettman era has left the canadian franchises out in the cold and people are done with the league and many will not ever be back.  Another factor is Canada has been dealing with mass immigration over the last 30 years. Over a quarter million people come here every year and 80% come from countries that do not care one tiny bit about hockey and most do not pick it up here because the teams suck under the bettman regime so there is nothing to attach yourself to even if they wanted to. There is a competitive baseball team to cheer for along with a good young basketball team, soccer teams, and ofcourse people watching their cricket matches from back home etc.....The game has been changed, always in the interest of american fans, or at least it is taken that way by many and lots of people feel the NHL no longer represents Canadian hockey, there is an attachment that is gone, for many people forever.

We get four months of summer type weather here. Who wants to sit inside watching over exhausted hockey players trudge around on crappy soft ice when the sun is blazing outside here after a long gloomy winter? And now it's to watch players from florida, california and wherever play for teams that never have anything to do with our country LOL...Not happening. Last years final was one of the most brutally boring events I ever watched in my life, I couldn't stomach watching every game, the players were all burnt out, there was zero animosity, probably due to the fact they were all too dead tired, not sure but it was pathetic.

You mean like they have blatantly been doing for American teams since 1993 when Bettman took control of the league??? LOL what a joke, you can't be serious?? Bahahahah!

I guess I'm in the minority Watches NHL

im glad I wont watch this year finals im done son since I was following the league still betting soon ill be done these people know how to make money mcdonalds 24/7

Well the sad reality is that the Canadian teams suck, and it has a lot to do with the organizations. Mismanagement of funds and wrong people in wrong positions making poor decisions.

The younger generation of Canadians isnt going to follow a sport where their hometown team isnt good. Just look at the Jays, they are getting really high ratings and crazy amount of support....Toronto is not a baseball town, thats for sure. 

BTW take into consideration NHL Centre ice & streams, a lot of these games are being watched on the internet. A lot of people dont even have cable TV anymore, so those numbers would only mean a lot more if it took into account the number of online viewers of these games (and they cant have that accurately)

Yup, and thats my point. TV ratings dont mean as much nowadays. 

I think a BIG factor the LACK of SCORING in games BOTH regular season and playoff. people south OR north of the border do NOT want to watch "soccer on ice". to MANY game like Red Wings @ Lightning game 5 and too FEW like the exciting multiple lead changes and double overtime Blackhawks @ Blues game 5 which just may have been THE best playoff game in YEARS

They are not excuses they are facts and no disrespect taken at all, we are welcome to our own views. I don't get the April reference, I never mentioned April specifically or summer in a calendar manner, I quite simply said we get four months of summer "type" weather so not sure where your sarcasm was headed with that one. The four summer months if we need to be super literal would be may through august, but again I was simply referring to when the weather gets nice and sunny which it just did here as the playoffs started by the way so that is a very valid point which should not be too hard to grasp with all due respect. If a certain cultures populace is being replaced by other cultures not interested in the same things then it is not just percentages it is raw basic numbers, that also is a simple fact. White Canadians due not reproduce at the same rate immigrating cultures do which is a statistical fact. I live right beside an elementary school in a predominantly white area and yet there are like 30 white kids in the entire school and most of them are eastern european, not hating that fact simply pointing it out so you get the difference. The face of Canada has changed drastically and continues to so it's only natural to expect many cultural things to continue to change, one being the interest in a white man's game. You're not here so I don't expect you to get this, especially since you are living in a melting pot. Canada is not a melting pot we are a mosaic and there is a huge difference. This also was not a slight towards anyone as I said a main factor in that is that when all these people from Asia and Africa are flooding in here there has been limited to zero success of the Canadian hockey franchises in fact it has been the opposite there is actually apathy now and in many places a running joke, that certainly is what the Leafs are and so there is no product to see to new people looking to attach themselves to the game. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/raptors-fans-jurassic-park-1.3540176

I'm not shocked by this at all.  But the drop in ratings is not all because of the no Canadian teams factor.  There are two other things, one which was already said about the number of people that stream and watch online instead of on tv (I do this most of the time now too).  And lastly, that raw number of a 61% drop in the ratings I don't think accounts for the fact that ratings in general in Canada have dropped since the viewership rights went from a combo of CBC and TSN to Rogers Sportsbet.  Their coverage is complete trash and the personnel moves they made to try and appeal to the younger audience (ie.  George Stromboloupoulos prancing around set in skinny jeans trying to talk about hockey) has had the opposite effect.  It doesn't matter what age you are, if you're a real hockey fan you'd rather listen to Ron Maclean and Don Cherry.  Simple as that!

Have to disagree with you PB about the national interest in the Jays and Raptors.  You express the very typical Toronto view that it is the centre of the universe and speaks for all of Canada.  The only evidence you've provided is the amount of Raps and Jays apparel that you see around in...DOWNTOWN Toronto lol!  Most of the rest of the country actually despises this attitude and the city because of it.  Unless they are already a fan, nobody gives a garbage.

Sportsnet killing cbc 

Actually no that was not all I said, I also said I see this when I travel within Canada, you must have glossed over that part? I am Aware of the centre of the universe slight and some of that is earned due to it being a corporate city but people within this city themselves hate that, like the people that fill the leaf games to entertain their clients, they are not even hockey fans, while some of that is just plain ignorance from other people that has nothing to do with Toronto. I say that having NOT lived in Toronto all my life, left for 12 years living in both the states and other parts of Canada before returning 10 years ago. I do see interest in the raptors and jays in other places I go in Canada. Do you really think people in the maritimes for example with zero sports teams of any kind do not cheer on the leafs, raptors and jays, or in saskatchewan, you think they just watch cfl football LOL? If so then you are delusional, sorry. 

MLB attendance, they are almost at the top of the list. 

I'll bow put here, I digress. I hope you guys get it all figured out but the NHL has very slowly been taking here in Canada since the 90's, just very gradual and it will continue, but hey just my opinion. But ya if there is no product to sell then there is no way to cultivate new fans and the old ones are just getting older and less interested and or dying off. Times change and no country in the world has changed more than one that is an open mosaic and the worlds guinea pig for mass multiculturalism. Now some will enjoy and follow the old game but without a valid product to sell that is an impossibility and there has not been a valid product to sell for a long, long time. It is what it is.

 Don't forget our soccer team here in Toronto they constantly sell out too and are only gaining steam, crazy atmosphere at those games.

Final note for my american brothers Those leaf games that you see full of fans are chalk full and I mean full of people that are not even hockey fans, Toronto is a corporate city and those games are full of people taking their clients to games and for not other reason. It is a HORRIBLE atmosphere especially the more expensive the section of seats, so don't think that is real hockey fans you see paying all that money and being super loyal, it is not, it's a mirage and that is all it is.