Examining the NHL postseason and the NHL’s viewership numbers with ESPN’s Ryan Clark and Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp

Episode 295 of the Sports Media Podcast features ESPN national NHL reporter Ryan Clark and Austin Karp, managing editor/digital of Sports Business Journal. In this podcast, Clark discusses the league’s biggest storylines for the postseason; how a national writer decides on what to cover for the postseason; how much the ESPN name carries weight in hockey; being based in Seattle; the teams that are press friendly; how the war in Ukraine has impacted the season; Pride Night; Stanley Cup predictions; and more. Karp discusses the second season of the media rights deal the NHL has with Warner Bros. Discovery and ABC and ESPN; ABC/ESPN averaging 583,000 viewers for its regular season; how that number jumps when you exclude NHL vs. NFL windows; ABC’s NHL viewership; TNT averaging 364,000 viewers for its regular season games; what the numbers mean in context; the best Final matchup based on viewership, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.