Blackhawks Regular Season Finale Posts Large Ratings On NBC

The Chicago Blackhawks regular-season finale against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, April 12, posted a 2.0 HH local rating on NBC’s “NHL Game of the Week,” up 100 percent from last season’s final regular-season contest between the same clubs and on the same network (April 6, 2008). The game posted a 1.2 rating among adults ages 25 to 54, up 71 percent from last season and a 1.5 mark among males ages 25 to 54, a 50 percent increase.

In conjunction with official television broadcasting partners Comcast SportsNet (57 games) and WGN Channel 9 (20 games), and league rightsholders NBC (two) and Versus (three), the Blackhawks televised all home and road games during the 2008-09 regular season for the first time in franchise history. Blackhawks games on Comcast SportsNet this season posted the team’s highest regular-season average in the history of Chicago regional sports television (1.26 household season average) and represented a 100% increase over last season. The 2008-09 regular-season also marked the historic first that Blackhawks hockey was broadcasted on News/Talk 720 WGN Radio, reaching 38 states and Canada on the new flagship station.