While the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs appear to have been a hit in the United States, they were less so of a television smash in Canada.

And while hockey remained the No. 1 program on Canadian television through the entire spring, what Rogers executive need to ask themselves is why fewer Canadians watched this year compared to last year.

It was the closest Stanley Cup final on record: the first five games were all decided by one goal -- there was never a two-goal lead -- and the winning goal in each of those five games was scored late in the third period.

And as for the decisive Game 6 -- the only game that featured a two-goal lead -- the first goal was scored in the second period and the second goal came late in the third.

Still:

-Average viewership (2.39 million) for the full six games of the Stanley Cup final was down 12 per cent from last year (2.72 million), and were the lowest since 2009.

-The average viewership (2.62 million) for the decisive Game 6 was down 20 per cent over last year's deciding game (Game 5). Some 8.6 million Canadians tuned it at some point to Game 6, peaking at 4.6 million at 10:50 p.m., during the third period.



-The audience for this year's decisive game was the lowest since 2003 when New Jersey beat Anaheim and 2.205 Canadians watched on CBC.

Overall, the entire playoffs (CBC and Sportsnet) attracted an average audience of 1.50 million viewers, down two per cent in comparison to the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs (CBC and TSN, 1.53 million viewers)

And total minutes consumed for all rounds of the entire playoffs (CBC and Sportsnet) were down seven per cent compared to last year, while audiences were down on CBC were down eight per cent and games on Sportsnet were 13 per cent lower than what TSN averaged last year.

This despite the fact five Canadian teams made the playoffs this season, compared to one the season before -- the Montreal Canadiens. Two of the five this year (Montreal and Calgary) went to the second round. Last year, Montreal made it to the Eastern Conference Final, the third round.

The low numbers for the playoffs follow a ratings drop overall for the regular season in this, the first year of a 12-year, $5.2 billion national rights contract for Rogers, which used its Sportsnet, CITY-TV and other properties -- including CBC -- to broadcast the NHL.



DIGITAL UP

Where Rogers has good news is the number of people who used Rogers GameCentre Live to stream. The number of subscribers tripled this year over last.

Also, there were 2,014,386 video views -- people searching Sportsnet.ca for hockey-related content (not live games) during the Stanley Cup final, up a whopping 455 per cent over 2014 (441,822).

And there were 504,130 video views (but not live games) on Rogers' mobile sites, up 1,368 per cent cent from 36,842 last year.

SOME CONTEXT

Some fans complained loudly about the reduced roles of Don Cherry and Ron MacLean, longtime stalwarts on Hockey Night in Canada.

Some didn't like the new look. Intermissions seemed very busy with a lot of attention paid to the bells and whistles of the impressive new studio but often lacking focus and content.

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Some haven't warmed to new host George Stroumboulopoulos.

But there were other factors as well, with increased ratings for the Blue Jays, and FIFA Women’s World Cup competing head-on in both cases.

Rogers said Monday’s Blue Jays game attracted an average audience of 782,000 – the most-watched game on Sportsnet since the home opener.

And since the Blue Jays are a Sportsnet property, Rogers is perfectly okay with that.

Some fans complained about the low scoring games.

NBC HAPPY

The lack of offence -- the Stanley Cup was producing soccer-like scores -- seemed not to bother U.S. audiences.

NBC was bragging that more than eight million Americans tuned into Game 6, a game that averaged 5.551 million set of eyeballs, up 14 per cent over last year.

Overall, the 88 games of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs averaged 1.430 million viewers across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network, making it the third-most watched post-season in 18 years.

NBC routinely won the nights they broadcast the Stanley Cup final.

GOT A QUESTION?

Email me at askkevinmcgran@gmail.com and I'll answer it in Friday's mailbag.

