Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final scored a rare increase over the previous time it aired exclusively on cable.
Thursday’s Oilers-Panthers NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4 averaged a 1.3 rating and series-high 2.61 million viewers across TNT and truTV, down a tick in ratings and 15% in viewership from the same matchup last year, which aired on ABC (1.4, 3.09M), but up a tick and 2% respectively from the previous Cup Final Game 4 on TNT Sports — Golden Knights-Panthers two years ago (1.2, 2.56M). Keep in mind both of those games aired on Saturday nights.
The Oilers’ overtime win was the first game of the series to increase from the comparable game of the 2023 Cup Final on TNT Sports.
Viewership was still on the low side historically, with the Game 4 audience topping only 2023 and the COVID “bubble” of 2020 (Lightning-Stars: 2.26M) as the smallest since 2012 (Devils-Kings: 2.07M). Those are the only Game 4s to average a smaller audience since 1994.
Game 4 delivered the fifth-largest NHL audience ever on TNT Sports, behind three games of the 2023 Cup Final and Panthers-Bruins Game 7 in the first round of that year’s playoffs (3.10M).
The Panthers-Oilers rematch is just the second Cup Final to air exclusively on cable in the past 31 years. Under the current media rights deal that began in 2021 and runs through 2028, TNT Sports gets an entire Cup Final every-other-year, including one more in 2027. The other title series air exclusively on broadcast network ABC.
Through Game 4, none of the nine Cup Final games on TNT Sports have hit the three million mark, and none of the 13 on broadcast network ABC have fallen below the three million mark. While that is to be expected given the gap between broadcast and cable, it should be noted that half of the final 18 Cup Final games on NBCSN topped three million viewers. (Of course, NBCSN had the benefit of much more attractive series and a larger cable universe.)
Figures for the Canadian broadcast of Game 4 will be added to this article when available.