ESPN’s Sean McDonough: “Montreal is a zero in the American ratings”

ESPN’s Sean McDonough: “Montreal is a zero in the American ratings “ I think this is of note. There is a Buffalo YouTube channel called Bleav Hockey that had Sean McDonough, who is a major person at ESPN, on their show during the second round seri...

ESPN’s Sean McDonough: “Montreal is a zero in the American ratings “ I think this is of note. There is a Buffalo YouTube channel called Bleav Hockey that had Sean McDonough, who is a major person at ESPN, on their show during the second round series and he described very clearly a reason why networks or NHL don’t want Montreal to win. The topic began with discussion of fans seeing the national network announcers as being biased against Buffalo and discussing the local broadcasts which can show the first round but not the later national broadcasts. At about 16:28 McDonough says: “If you're ESPN or Turner and you're paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to these games, you don't want the rating diminished because people have the option of watching their local broadcast. And if they have that option, they're likely going to.” He goes on at 17:36: “And if we would want one team to advance it, this is just Montreal is a zero in the American ratings right there. It's not a it's not a metered ratings market. So if they advance, it's like we're going to get half the rating” And he continues: “because you get to the conference final, you get to the Stanley Cup final, you know, there's the national rating … in western New York, upstate New York, you know, and in Denver, that rating is going to be huge, right? That's going to be a 50. And that helps drive it. Well, we only get half of that if Edmonton is in the final or Montreal is in the final.” Why did he say all this? He was trying to rebut accusations of Buffalo fans saying coverage of the second round was biased against Buffalo. He was saying there is no reason for ESPN to want Montreal to win, and claims he doesn’t care who wins, even though it would be better for them if Montreal lost. “if people are looking for conspiracy theories why they clearly want Montreal to win, just on the rational facts, I don't care about it. You know, I just, may the best team win.” From Bleav Hockey May 15, 2026 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fezJiPNgQF0 submitted by /u/Technical-Line-9806 [link] [comments]