Last year in the playoffs, one controversy was the outdoor viewing parties outside Mellon Arena for Pittsburgh Penguins playoff games. When the games were broadcast on NBC, this viewing party, which was good for the promotion of the game was killed. NBC argued that this cost them money - which it did on a small level. The few thousand viewers at the Penguins viewing party were watching the NBC feed. The problem is that they are not counted. The Nielsen TV ratings count the number of TV sets watching a game and not the number of viewers. Advertising ratings are linked to Nielsen ratings. Thus NBC wants the maximum number of TVs on. They may lose some viewers in the process (as some people who go for the viewing party would not bother watching a game at home) but it increases revenue marginally. For the same reason NBC does not like sports bars or large families that watch TV together. It is a broken system where an event that is great for promotion of hockey with an NBC feed watched by thousands is not in NBC’s best interests.

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.ph...ewing_parties/