Editor’s note: This article was written by Austin Karp and first appeared in Sports Business Journal, the industry’s leading source of sports business news, events and data.

The third season of the NHL’s media rights deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery produced the league’s best regular-season audience on U.S. national airwaves since 2015-16. Games averaged 504,000 viewers per game, up 8% from 465,000 last season (which was down only slightly from Year 1 of the deal).

The league also had its best season on cable ( ESPN and TNT) in 30 years (and up 8% from last season). ESPN was a key driver, seeing a 25% uptick for games (to 486,000 viewers this season). Combined with ABC, Disney networks averaged 666,000 viewers, up 13% from 2022-23. TNT again held steady with its viewership, averaging 362,000 for games (which again had a number of local blackout restrictions). Separately, in Canada, games averaged 1.3 million this season for Rogers Sportsnet, up 7%.

The most-watched game of the season was Rangers-Islanders in the Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium in February. That averaged 1.6 million viewers on ABC.

With all the hype around No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard, his debut with the Blackhawks against the Penguins in October was No. 2 overall with 1.4 million on ESPN (that was ESPN’s lone game in the top 10).

The New Year’s Day Winter Classic on TNT/truTV dropped to No. 6 this season, as Golden Knights-Kraken was the lowest audience yet for that event (it will move to New Year’s Eve next season).

Locally/regionally, NHL games in the U.S. were flat this season. On a rebranded Monumental Sports Network, Capitals games were down 37%, but with a caveat. Sources told SBJ a coding issue discovered in the middle of the season may have had a significant impact on the audience (perhaps affecting as much as 25% of the team’s viewership base through Verizon Fios). That may have in turn affected numbers from 20%-50% for certain games.

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The Lightning, just two years removed from winning the Stanley Cup, this season were down 27% on Bally Sports Florida. Coming off a historic season in 2022-23, the Bruins saw a 19% drop in audience on NESN. The Wild also lost audience to a surging Timberwolves team in the Twin Cities, down 14% on Bally Sports North. Strong competition in the New York market also affected the Devils, who were down 12%.

Among the local winners this season were the Blackhawks, who had incredible buzz after drafting Bedard. Even with an injury sidelining Bedard for a key part of the season, games on NBC Sports Chicago jumped 35%. The Red Wings saw a 32% jump on Bally Sports Detroit, while the Flyers were up 30% on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Helping balance numbers were strong performances in the nation’s biggest media market. The Rangers’ strong season led to a 17% gain on MSG, while the Islanders jumped 16%.”To see something like in the New York markets where the Rangers actually beat the Knicks — on an up year for the Knicks — was pretty wild,” said Playfly CEO Michael Schreiber of the Rangers’ local performance on MSG Networks during the regular season.Among RSNs/local TV this season, the audience among viewers ages 18-34 was up for the NHL, while the female audience was also up 3% (and now accounts for 37% of the NHL local media audience).