Weekly Hat Trick: Kraken move to OTA, Amazon Monday Night Hockey, Stanley Cup Playoffs Viewership

The growing trend of abandoning cable for over-the-air television in regional markets has struck another NHL team; Amazon has snatched the Monday Night Hockey package in Canada; and Stanley Cup Playoffs viewership continues to hit highs in the States.

Kraken move to Over-the-Air

The Seattle Kraken have abandoned ROOT Sports, which has been the three-year home for the short-lived franchise, for the free, over-the-air Seattle affiliate, KONG. The network will be the new local home for the Kraken, and is said to air 70-plus non-nationally televised games, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. Moreover, KING-5, the NBC affiliate for the Seattle area, will air 15 of the 70 games aired by Tegna-owned KONG beginning in the 2024-2025 season.

In addition, Tegna-owned stations in the Portland and Spokane areas will also televise the Kraken’s non-nationally televised games on their respective over-the-air station. Furthermore, Tegna has worked in conjunction with Amazon to air the Kraken’s games across Washington, Oregon, and Alaska with a Prime subscription.

KING-5 will also televise the Kraken’s pre-season games, along with the team’s first-round playoff series, in the occasion Seattle makes it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The broadcaster talent from ROOT Sports, which includes John Forslund, Eddie Olczyk, JT Brown, Nick Olczyk, and Alison Lukan, will all follow the team to KING-5 and continue in their respective roles.

(Seattle Times)

Amazon Acquires Monday Night Hockey

Airing Seattle Kraken games was not the only acquisition Amazon Prime made in terms of their hockey content this week, as beginning in the 2024-2025 season, the streaming service will begin to exclusively air Monday Nigh Hockey in Canada, which will now be called Prime Monday Night Hockey. The deal will be for two seasons, following in suit with Rogers’ NHL deal, and will have the games produced by Amazon.

This will be Canada’s first exclusive streaming service deal for NHL games, as broadcasters and talent alike are still to be determined.

(Sportsnet)

Stanley Cup Playoffs Viewership

Through Wednesday, the Stanley Cup Playoffs were averaging 832,000 viewers in the United States, up 27% vs. last year’s comparable point (645K).

Thanks to a weekend start for this year’s playoffs (which will hopefully continue in the future), the NHL began the playoffs with its three largest opening round Game 1 audiences on cable in history, with the Capitals-Rangers (1.34 million), Maple Leafs-Bruins (1.14 million), and Avalanche-Jets (1.09 million).

Furthermore, the Jets’ 7-6 win over Colorado on Saturday is the most-viewed opening-round game to ever air on ESPN2 (1.09 million), previously passing a record set by Game 7 of the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames in 2022 (1.02 million).

On Monday, the upward trend continued as the Maple Leafs and Bruins averaged 1.13 million viewers on ESPN, up 6% vs. last year’s comparable game, Panthers-Bruins (1.07 million). Additionally, the latter half of ESPN’s two games, the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars, averaged 777,000 viewers, up 61% vs. last year’s comparable game (Kings-Oilers, 438K), and the highest-viewed opening round Game 1 to air in the 9:30 p.m. ET timeslot under the current television deal.

Moving onto Wednesday, the Bruins and Maple Leafs continued to provide large numbers, as Game 3 averaged 1.238 million viewers, along with the Golden Knights and Stars averaging 1.003 million viewers as the latter game. Each contest was up vs. last year’s comparable window, along with the Golden Knights-Stars breaking records, as it was the most-viewed late prime game 1-3 of the opening round ever on cable, according to ESPN PR.

Viewership for each Stanley Cup Playoffs game, along with series and network averages can be found with this link.

(ESPN PR)

Bonus Goal: Calgary Flames Renew with Sportsnet

The Calgary Flames and Sportsnet have reached a new agreement that will extend the companies exclusive regional broadcast rights by 11 additional seasons with the franchise (2035).

Rick Ball and Kelly Hrudey will continue to provide commentary for the Flames’ regional broadcasts.

(Sportsnet)