The NBA Finals might be drawing more viewers than the Stanley Cup Final -- even if hockey boasts the better playoffs -- but the NHL is still basking in big audiences for its title bout between the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins.
With a 4.14 overnight TV rating from Monday's showdown at Bridgestone Arena, NBC posted its best Game 4 numbers since 2013, according to SportsBusiness Daily's Austin Karp. And while the 2014-15 Final matchups were televised on NBC Sports Network, other marks from this year's Penguins and Predators series have been promising, to say the least.
Monday's Game 4, per NBC, set a record for the highest local TV rating for a Predators game in the network's history. And the previous record for local ratings for Nashville came at the start of the Final, in Game 1 at Pittsburgh.
In New York, meanwhile, the Buffalo News reports that local Stanley Cup Final ratings have skyrocketed as well:
The hockey series now has an average local rating of 8.6 for the four games, two of which were on cable's NBCSN.
By comparison, the first four games in Pittsburgh's six-game series victory over the San Jose Sharks a year ago averaged a 4.8 local rating. That means the ratings this year are up about 75 percent from a year ago. The big reason is the ratings of the two games on cable this year are twice as high as they were a year ago.
