FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

TWO STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF GAME 7s POWER NBCSN TO MOST-WATCHED FIRST ROUND DOUBLEHEADER ON RECORD

Game 7 Overtime Thriller Between Golden Knights and Sharks Averages Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.138 Million Viewers, Most-Watched First Round Late Game on Cable in 16 Years

Maple Leafs-Bruins Game 7 Averages TAD of 1.378 Million Viewers, NBC Sports’ Third-Most Watched First Round Game on Cable

First Round Concludes Tonight with Game 7 of Carolina-Washington Series at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN

STAMFORD, Conn. – April 24, 2019 – Last night’s two Stanley Cup Playoff Game 7s delivered NBCSN with the network’s most-watched First Round doubleheader on record (since 2006) as well as several other viewership milestones, according to data from Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Toronto-Boston and San Jose-Vegas combined for a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.243 million viewers, up 17% vs. the previous record set for two Game 7s in 2011 (Buf-Phi and Chi-Van, 1.060 million).

In last night’s second game, San Jose defeated Vegas, 5-4, in an overtime thriller. The game (9:57 p.m. – 1:31 a.m. ET) averaged a TAD of 1.138 million viewers, making it the most-watched First Round late game on cable in 16 years (2003, Col-Min, Game 7, 1.243 million, ESPN) and up 77% vs. the previous late Game 7 on cable in 2016 (Nas-Ana, 644,000, NBCSN).

Boston defeated Toronto 5-1 in the early game (6:55-9:41 p.m. ET), averaging a TAD of 1.378 million viewers on NBCSN. Despite the lopsided score, the contest was NBC Sports’ third-most watched First Round cable game on record, trailing only two other Game 7s (2018, Tor-Bos, 1.484 million; 2016, Chi-StL, 1.420 million). The game peaked with a TV-only audience of 1.880 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET.

Digitally, Maple Leafs-Bruins delivered an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 80,300 viewers, ranking as the most-watched live stream of a First Round game on record. The Golden Knights-Sharks overtime game streamed 15.7 million live minutes, the most ever for a Stanley Cup Playoff First Round game. It also produced an AMA of 73,300 viewers, which is the second-most watched live stream of a First Round game on record behind only Maple Leafs-Bruins.

Through 14 days, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are averaging a TAD of 633,000 viewers across NBC Sports’ cable and streaming platforms (NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app), up 11% compared to 2018 (572,000).

The First Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs concludes tonight with yet one more Game 7 as the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals host the Carolina Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

–NBC SPORTS–