Two thrilling U.S. overtime golds over Canada could boost NBC, Olympics, and hockey

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Another incredible hockey finish might boost NBC and the Olympics even further

The Olympic men's hockey gold-medal match Sunday morning (in North America, at least; it took place in the early afternoon in Milan) saw the U.S. pick up a 2-1 overtime win over Canada, giving that country its first Olympic men's hockey gold since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" (and 46 years later to the day, no less, as Jeff Eisenberg noted in an excellent recap at Yahoo Sports; funnily enough, the top image comes from one "Miracle on Ice" goalie Jim Craig tweeted). But, from a business perspective, the biggest winners from that highly dramatic game might be NBC, the International Olympic Committee, and perhaps even the NHL and the wider sport of (ice, important to clarify here considering there's another Olympic option) hockey, especially with it coming on the heels of a similarly-thrilling 2-1 U.S. OT win over Canada in the women's gold-medal game Thursday (and meaning that the U.S. men and women won Olympic gold in the same year for the first time). That women's game produced stunning ratings, and all indications are that this one may do the same despite its early start. That, plus the general conversation generated from remarkable moments like these matches, could carry a lot of benefits for many parties.

Let's start with that women's final, as the ratings information there is already known. Here's the key part of what NBC put out on that front Friday:

"The most-watched women's hockey game on record" is certainly a good start (although, of course, that only means in the U.S. considering that this is a release from an American network about their own viewership). And that's more impressive still when you consider that this game was carried on cable rather than broadcast, and that that overtime finish happened while much of the U.S. was still at work Friday.

Unlike the men's side, too, where a Canada-U.S. final (seemingly the most ideal one for U.S. viewership) had only happened in 2002 and 2010, the Canadians and Americans seem much further ahead of the field in women's hockey, facing off for gold in the first women's hockey Olympic tournament in 1998 and then also in 2002, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. And those 2002 and 2010 matchups in particular were on the North American continent and at more favorable times for high North American viewership, so it stands out that this one beat those.

Some of that may be the increasing rising tide of U.S. interest in women's sports overall. Some of it may have been increased interest in women's hockey with the 2023-founded PWHL (certainly still a target for criticism, but seemingly a ways up from past North American pro women's hockey leagues, and formed out of the past PHL and in partnership with the PWHPA, which had been running its own competing exhibition events). And some of it may be rising awareness of the incredible athletes and stories in this sport.* At any rate, that number is certainly excellent news for NBC (which has U.S. Olympic rights through 2036, including two further Winter Games), the IOC (having ice hockey in general and women's hockey in particular draw big in the U.S., where they get their largest media rights contract, is definitely beneficial for the profile of the Winter Olympics), and everyone involved in women's hockey.

A quick side note: the Olympics as a sporting event are highly international, and involve TV and business factors well beyond just the U.S. TV ratings. However, specific ratings elsewhere aren't always possible to find (for example, the women's hockey gold medal game aired on broadcast on CBC in Canada, and presumably drew a huge audience, but I haven't been able to track down ratings for it yet). And the NBC contract (most recently, a $3 billion extension last year for 2034 and 2036) is the IOC's biggest media deal. Thus, the U.S. specifics are still interesting, important, and worth discussing, but the wider global situation is certainly in my mind in any Olympic analysis; it just isn't always as easy to discuss in as much detail.

Much of that applies to the men's gold-medal match as well. The ratings obviously aren't in yet, but they should be spectacular, as the game was just as close and dramatic (as frequently discussed here, that's critical for average audience ratings, which depend on more people joining a broadcast than leaving it) as the women's one and featured an even more remarkable matchup. As Rodger Sherman noted in his essential Sports! newsletter (which has been a terrific resource throughout these Games), Canada and the U.S. have only faced off for Olympic men's hockey gold in 2010, 2002, and 1920 (yes, ice hockey was in the Summer Olympics then), and have never played each other in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships' gold-medal match (although that tournament deserves more asterisks than most competitions, as it's typically held during the NHL playoffs and thus features the best players not currently in the postseason rather than best-on-best lineups). But there's a tremendous rivalry there, and massive interest in it, as shown in the average of 9.3 million U.S. viewers on ESPN and 6.3 million Canadian viewers on Sportsnet for the U.S.-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off final (won 3-2 by Canada in overtime) last February.

Will these gold-medal match ratings surpass that 4 Nations final, or, even more radically, past Olympic gold-medal match numbers? That's far from clear. The 4 Nations final and the 2002 and 2010 gold-medal games (17.1 million and 27.6 million for NBC respectively, 10 million and 16.6 million for CBC respectively, with some of that latter number also coming on a TSN simulcast) all took place in better timeslots. The 4 Nations final also came around incredible off-ice political context between the U.S. and Canada; there's still some of that, to be sure, especially with tariff debates, but the immediate international political situation between the countries seems perhaps less heated than it did last February.

However, this game took place with that recent 4 Nations backstory/rivalry already in existence. And this was for seemingly a much more prominent and well-recognized prize than the championship of a just-created tournament. And while the time (an 8:10 a.m. ET start) was rough for North America, there was a good reason for that (it was 2:10 p.m. in Milan, and this was one of the last events before the closing ceremonies), and this did take place on a Sunday rather than a typical weekday. Eisenberg referenced bars across the U.S. opening early for this match (and hey, thanks to out-of-home viewing tracking changes over the last decade, bar viewership will be much more counted than it was for the 2002 or 2010 gold-medal games). A guess here would be that it might be hard to hit the 2002 or 2010 numbers based mostly on timeslot, but it would be quite possible for this to pass the 4 Nations number. Still, you never know until the ratings come in.

Presuming the eventual men's numbers are good, though (and, given the timeslot, even a sub-4 Nations number could possibly be seen as "good"), there are a lot of positives from the hockey competitions at these Games for NBC, the IOC, the NHL, and the sport more broadly. For NBC, these final matchups, their thrilling outcomes, and their ratings (confirmed to be great on the women's side, expected to be good on the men's side) are likely to be one of the viewership highlights of these Olympics overall, impressive considering that their ratings have generally been up quite a bit. That's also good news for the IOC considering NBC's importance to them.

As for the NHL, strong numbers here would add to the case for them having their players continue to participate in these Games. That wasn't the case before 1998, and also didn't happen in 2018 or 2022, as it's an annoying midseason break with an injury risk for them. But it's also a huge marketing opportunity to find new hockey fans, some of who might remain afterwards, and it's something many of their players want to participate in. And for both men's and women's hockey, remarkable Olympic numbers and attention (and the drama in these games means they have and will gain further attention beyond the broadcasts, from highlights shows to radio mentions to social media and in-person conversations) is vital for both engaging current casual fans and finding new fans. These games worked out very well for NBC, the IOC, and overall hockey in terms of matchups and match quality, and that could pay a lot of dividends for everyone going forward.

*One particular Canada-U.S. women's hockey storyline that may not matter to everyone, but does to some; the remarkable history of marriages between U.S. and Canadian players. As Sherman noted Friday, "Other sports have great rivalries. How many of those rival teams are so close that opposing star players somewhat regularly fall in love and get married? Like, there are at least three married couples consisting of former Team USA and Team Canada women’s hockey players. (And to think they made a gay hockey show about men’s players, for some reason.)" That certainly makes this incredible rivalry (which, as Sherman also noted, has taken center stage in 30 of the 32 IIHF World Championships and Olympic gold-medal matches in this sport contested to date, with either the U.S. or Canada winning the other two exceptions as well) stand out even further.