CRASH LANDING! Flyers’ TV ratings take tumble

When you consider the Philadelphia Flyers had their second-worst record in franchise history, it’s not surprising that their TV ratings took a tumble this season.

The Flyers had a 39% drop in NBC Sports Philadelphia viewership compared to last season, according to the Sports Business Journal. SBJ analyzed data from Nielsen.

The data is based on the 23 U.S.-based teams. Data was not available for Carolina, Nashville, or the seven Canadian teams, per SBJ.

Only Arizona (58%), which had the league’s second-worst record, and Vegas (40%) had bigger viewership drops than the Philadelphia Flyers. Vegas barely missed the playoffs.

Philly finished 25-46-11, and it had the league’s worst record (12-34-5) from Jan. 1 until the end of the season.

Here are some other findings from SBJ:

• Of the 23 teams analyzed, only Detroit (2%), Florida (6%), Minnesota (14%), and Los Angeles (20%) had an increase in local viewership.
• Pittsburgh had the NHL’s highest rating (5.43) for the ninth time in the last 16 seasons.
• Boston, which has a bigger market than Pittsburgh, didn’t have the highest rating but it had the biggest average TV audience: 661,000 homes per game.
• Though Florida’s had 6% more viewers, its 0.46 rating was one of the NHL’s lowest. The Panthers had the NHL’s best regular-season record.
• The Anaheim Ducks had the league’s lowest rating for (0.15 on Bally Sports SoCal) for the fifth time in six years. You could blame it on there being so much to do in Southern California, but the Kings had a healthy increase in viewers.
• Viewership on nationally televised games on ABC, ESPN, and TNT increased about 18% compared to the NHL’s final season with NBC Sports in 2020-21