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00:00You know, Renee, here in South Florida, everyone's very, very thrilled to see the Florida Panthers back, you know, playing in the Eastern Conference Finals, probably going to be playing for the championship again.
00:09I know that doesn't necessarily help the league. The Panthers play in a market which is Sunrise, Florida, not necessarily even Miami.
00:16Edmonton certainly doesn't either, playing in Canada. Yes, they get that pocket, you know, of fans that are there.
00:23But it seems like, unfortunately, with some of the bigger teams and the bigger markets out of it, the ratings are really suffering.
00:30Yeah, not good to see that 28% dip in NHL playoff ratings so far through the first two rounds.
00:35And with us talking so much about the growth of the NBA, it feels like the NHL is kind of spinning around trying to figure things out.
00:41They had five teams in the playoffs this season out of the 16 that were Canadian teams.
00:45And some have pointed to that as a reason why the ratings have dipped because for ESPN and TNT, they're only broadcast in the United States.
00:52So with hockey in general having such a big Canadian presence and the NHL having their own media rights, it's really caused there to be a dip in terms of ratings.
01:01But when you look at the actual action on the ice, and as you mentioned with the Florida Panthers and their third consecutive Eastern Conference Final,
01:08looking to defend their title, looking at the Dallas Stars winning 6-3 to open up game one over Edmonton yesterday, the action's exciting.
01:15It's just they haven't been able to reach their audience, and I think that's a big part of it.
01:19Their TV deals have unfortunately caused them to also miss a huge audience and not be able to capitalize on reaching them in the most pivotal part of the season.
01:27Everyone loves tuning in to the run of the Stanley Cup.