The Great Canadian Ratings Report: Hockey still rules TV-land, but the empire is shrinking

When NHL czar Gary Bettman spoke hopefully about playoff television ratings recently, he was only doing what the league pays him a huge salary to do: paint a rosy picture no matter how dark the canvas.

Despite the fact that only a miracle or a series of plane crashes will help the NHL avoid the first Canada-free playoffs in four decades, Bettman said he firmly believed that Canadians will watch in huge numbers.

Though it's all relative, he wasn't issuing one of his credibility stretchers like calling Phoenix a hockey town or that concussions aren't an issue in the NHL. The fact is, Canadians will indeed tune into the playoffs in huge numbers -- just not the kind of numbers Canadian teams would produce and not enough to put the Rogers hockey broadcast empire in the black this year.

With Canada's entire NHL contingent deciding to have a collective off-year, ratings are down big time. Hockey Night In Canada, the flagship of the NHL in this country, has seen its prime-time audiences drop 16 per cent for the second year in a row. (That's about a 30 per cent decrease since Rogers took over, if you're scoring at home.)

Considering the state of Canada's franchises, it could have been worse. And despite what the Canadian teams' mass pratfall is doing to Rogers' bottom line, the fact remains that a lot of people are still watching hockey.

Last weekend, for example, the aforementioned Saturday night game averaged 1.46 million viewers.
That's low by HNIC standards, but still about a million more than anything else that was on TV over the weekend. Considering that there really was no logical reason for anyone to watch these meaningless games, 1.46 million is pretty impressive.

Hockey is still king; it's just that its throne is looking a little tarnished these days.

Bettman offered hope that good, competitive hockey and the lure of watching Canadian players will keep audiences high. On the former, that might work to an extent. On the latter, good luck. (Hey, Marge, there are Canadians playing hockey on TV! Let's stay home!)

What Bettman didn't say was that audiences will be down, and probably down a lot. The hard-core fans will watch, maybe even to see Canadian players wearing Florida and Dallas jerseys.

But where Rogers will lose out is with all those millions of casual fans, and even non-fans, who get caught up in the excitement of their home team's playoff run. That won't be happening this year.

Weekend notables: You've got to hand it to Formula One fans when it comes to loyalty. Sunday's season opener drew an average of 166,000 viewers even though the race started at 2 a.m. EDT. That's more than any MLS game and even a game featuring Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby -- one of the stars Rogers is counting on to draw viewers in the playoffs. ... Blue Jays fever obviously hasn't worn off. The team's Grapefruit League game on Sunday averaged 344,000 viewers, well ahead of many games that actually meant something. ... Ratings mystery: the Toronto Raptors. Despite having one of the best records in the NBA and representing a city that's not exactly synonymous with winning, their weekend games didn't even average 200,000 viewers..

Here are the most-watched sports events on English-language television from the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. NHL, Habs-Sens/Sabres-Leafs, Saturday, CBC-City-Sportsnet, 1,460,000

2. NHL, Blues at Canucks, Saturday, CBC, 571,000

3. NHL, Flames at Canadiens, Sunday, Sportsnet: 553,000

4. Women's worlds curling, Canada vs. Switzerland, Sunday, TSN: 443,000

5. NHL, Canucks at Oilers, Friday, Sportsnet West/Pacific: 410,000

6. Women's worlds curling, Canada vs. U.S., Sunday, TSN: 356,000

7. MLB, Pirates at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 344,000

8. Curling, Grand Slam Elite 10 final, Sunday, Sportsnet: 318,000

9. NHL, Avalanche at Oilers, Sunday, Sportsnet: 317,000

10. Women's worlds curling, Canada vs. Denmark, Saturday, TSN: 304,000

10. PGA, Arnold Palmer Invitational final round, Sunday, Global: 304,000

12. Curling, Grand Slam Elite 10  round robin, Friday, Sportsnet: 249,000

13. Auto racing, NASCAR Auto Club 400, Sunday, TSN: 217,000 (Fox audience not measured)

14. NHL, Blackhawks at Jets, Friday, TSN regional: 209,000

15. NBA, Magic at Raptors, Sunday, Sportsnet One: 208,000

16. Curling, Grand Slam Elite 10 semifinal, Saturday, Sportsnet: 196,000

17. MLB, Astros at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 192,000

18. PGA, Arnold Palmer Invitational third round, Saturday, Global: 180,000

19.  NBA, Celtics at Raptors, Friday, Sportsnet One: 178,000

20. NHL, Senators at Sabres, Friday, TSN regional: 168,000

21. Auto racing, F1 Australian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 166,000

22. Soccer, Leicester-CP/Norwich-Brom, Saturday, TSN: 165,000

23. Curling, Grand Slam Elite 10 quarterfinal, Saturday, Sportsnet: 162,000

24. Tennis, Indian Wells men's final, Sunday, TSN: 157,000

25. Athletics, World Indoor championships, Saturday, CBC: 151,000

26. Athletics, World Indoor championships, Sunday, CBC: 143,000

27. NHL, Ducks at Jets, Sunday, TSN regional: 137,000

28. Basketball, NCAA men's second round, Sunday, TSN: 131,000 (CBS audience not measured)

29. NHL, Penguins at Flyers, Saturday, Sportsnet: 130,000

30. Soccer, Everton at Arsenal, Saturday, TSN: 126,000

THREE TO WATCH
The alliterations continue: Between March Madness and the Elite Eight comes the Sweet Sixteen, which kicks off this week's NCAA basketball tournament coverage. With Middle Tennessee having ruined the lives of most poolies last week, there might be a few less eyeballs glued to the TV set when No. 2 Villanova takes on No. 3 Miami (Thursday, 7:10 p.m. ET, TSN and CBS.)

Thanks for the Memorial: Major junior hockey teams start on the road to the Memorial Cup this week, with playoff action from the OHL and WHL hitting the little screen. Windsor and Kitchener meet Thursday (7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet) while Red Deer and Calgary cross sticks Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Sportsnet 360.)

On the rocks: The final big date on the women's curling calendar is Sunday, when the world championship is decided. Canadian curling fans -- and TSN -- are hoping Canada's Chelsea Carey will be there (Sunday, 5 p.m. ET, TSN.)