FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, June 12th, 2017
2017 STANLEY CUP FINAL IS MOST-WATCHED FINAL ON RECORD WITHOUT AN ORIGINAL SIX TEAM
Six-Game Stanley Cup Final Averages Total Audience Delivery of 4.762 Million Viewers, Up 19% vs. 2016
Game 6 Averages Total Audience Delivery of 7.086 Million Viewers, TV-Only Audience Peaks with Nearly 9.5 Million Viewers
Game 6 Live Stream Sets Record With Average Minute Audience of 101,000 Viewers
Pittsburgh and Nashville Record Ratings Milestones throughout Final
2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs Average TAD of 1.387 Million Viewers Across Networks of NBCUniversal, Up 11% vs. 2016
2017 Delivers Most-Streamed Stanley Cup Playoffs and Final Ever
STAMFORD, Conn. – June 12, 2017 – The six-game 2017 Stanley Cup Final featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators produced a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 4.762 million average viewers, making it the most-watched Stanley Cup Final on record without an Original Six team, according to Fast National Ratings from The Nielsen Company and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
Game 6 on NBC, which the Pittsburgh Penguins won by a score of 2-0 on Sunday night to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998, averaged a TAD of 7.086 million viewers, up 29% vs. last year’s Cup-clinching Game 6 on NBC featuring Pittsburgh and San Jose (5.476 million).
Across 84 games on NBC/NBCSN/CNBC/USA Network, the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged a TAD of 1.387 million viewers, up 11% vs. the 2016 postseason (89 games; 1.253 million).
TAD measures consumption across multiple platforms, combining the Average Minute Audience (AMA) for television and digital.
This year’s viewership gains come despite five Canadian teams qualifying for the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including two Canadian teams in the Second Round and one in the Conference Finals — as compared to zero in 2016 — plus the absence of a Top 20 TV home market in the Stanley Cup Final.
STANLEY CUP FINAL
Despite neither Nashville (#29) nor Pittsburgh (#23) being a Top 20 TV market, the 2017 Stanley Cup Final on NBC/NBCSN averaged 4.762 million viewers, making it the most-watched Final on record without an Original Six team (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, N.Y. Rangers, and Toronto). Viewership was up 19% vs. the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, which featured the Penguins and the San Jose Sharks. The 2017 Stanley Cup Final averaged a 2.67 HH rating across the six games on NBC/NBCSN, and the TV-only viewership averaged 4.679 million viewers, up 18% and 19%, respectively, vs. the six-game 2016 Final.
The 2017 Stanley Cup Final averaged a 32.0 rating in Pittsburgh on NBC/NBCSN, up from the market’s 31.7 average during the 2016 Penguins-Sharks Stanley Cup Final. Nashville shattered ratings records throughout the playoffs, and averaged a 22.0 in the Stanley Cup Final.
Following are the Top 10 markets for the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.
| Rank | Metered Market | Rating |
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 32.0 |
| 2 | Nashville | 22.0 |
| 3 | Buffalo | 8.9 |
| 4 | Knoxville | 7.1 |
| 5 | Minneapolis-St. Paul | 5.5 |
| 6 | Philadelphia | 4.7 |
| 7 | Denver | 4.3 |
| 8 | Richmond | 4.1 |
| 9 | West Palm Beach | 4.0 |
| 10 | Detroit | 3.9 |
Digitally, Pittsburgh and Nashville delivered the most-streamed Stanley Cup Final ever, totaling 760,000 uniques and 97.7 million live minutes, up 38% and 45%, respectively, vs. last year’s Cup Final.
GAME 6
Last night’s Game 6 (8:11-11:18 p.m. ET) averaged a TAD of 7.086 million viewers, up 29% vs last year’s Game 6. It is only the seventh Stanley Cup Final game to exceed seven million average viewers, and the sixth on NBC. TV-only viewership delivered a 3.88 HH rating and 6.985 million average viewers, up 26% and 29%, respectively, vs. 2016. TV-only viewership peaked with nearly 9.5 million viewers in the 10:45-11 p.m. ET quarter hour (9.406 million), as Pittsburgh broke a scoreless tie late in regulation. When final ratings are released, NBC is expected to win the night in the advertiser coveted Adult 18-49 demographic.
Game 6 registered a 40.0 rating in Pittsburgh, to rank as the second-highest rated Penguins game ever in the Pittsburgh market on the networks of NBC, trailing only Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final (42.2).
The game also delivered a 28.3 rating in Nashville to rank as the highest-rated Predators game ever in the market on the networks of NBC. All six Stanley Cup Final games were the highest-rated Preds games ever in the market. In addition, three Tennessee markets (Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis) ranked in the Top 10 markets for Game 6; Knoxville ranked third with a 10.7 rating, while Memphis tied for ninth with a 5.4 rating.
Following are the Top 10 Markets for Game 6.
| Rank | Metered Market | Rating |
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 40.0 |
| 2 | Nashville | 28.3 |
| 3 | Knoxville | 10.7 |
| 4 | Buffalo | 10.4 |
| 5 | Minneapolis-St. Paul | 8.3 |
| 6 | Philadelphia | 6.4 |
| 7 | Denver | 5.9 |
| 8 | St. Louis | 5.5 |
| 9 | Detroit | 5.4 |
| 9 | Memphis | 5.4 |
Digitally, last night’s Game 6 delivered an Average Minute Audience of 101,000 viewers, the highest-ever for an NHL game, and up 47% vs. last year. Game 6 produced the third-most live minutes (19.5 million) and fourth-most uniques (266,000) ever for an NHL game, which were up 63% and 41%, respectively, vs. 2016.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
Across all 84 games on NBC/NBCSN/CNBC/USA Network, the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged a TAD of 1.387 million viewers, up 11% vs. 2016, despite five Canadian teams in this year’s Playoffs vs. zero last year. It is the ninth consecutive year that the Playoffs have averaged more than 1.2 million viewers.
Following are the Top 10 Markets for Stanley Cup Playoffs.
| Rank | Metered Market | Rating |
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 6.8 |
| 2 | Nashville | 4.1 |
| 3 | Buffalo | 3.0 |
| 4 | St. Louis | 2.2 |
| 5 | Minneapolis-St. Paul | 2.0 |
| 6 | Philadelphia | 1.6 |
| 6 | West Palm Beach | 1.6 |
| 8 | Washington D.C. | 1.5 |
| 9 | Providence | 1.4 |
| 10 | Richmond | 1.3 |
The 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app were the most-streamed in history. The 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs delivered more than a half-billion live minutes (527.4 million) and two million uniques, up 31% and 22% vs. the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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–NBC SPORTS GROUP–
