2017 NASCAR Season - Television Ratings Thread

Skoalbandit33 said:
Have no fear....someone will be along shortly to tell us there is 7-8 more years of TV largess left and all the commercials in all the broadcasts are sold. All is well and in 8 more years there will be a huge bidding war for all Nascar properties.
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At this rate of decline, half of the race broadcast or more will be commercials or side-by-side ads within 3-4 years and there will be 5 stages so that the networks can recoup their "investment" in NASCAR.

Anyone read:

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The demo they’re taking aim on and seem to be improving upon isn’t going to be enough to offset the numbers of those who ain’t interested in this crap anymore ‘n tuning out.

When the partners see that, it’s gonna get funnier than all hell.

Damned if, I ain’t lookin’ forward to it. Keep the DVRs runnin', citizens.
 
DixieThunder24 said:
Anyone spent any time around a 18-26 year old lately. I work with nothing but that age range. They DONT watch tv. Its all streaming and most of them don't watch any live sports. its the shift in society to blame.
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If they had interest in NASCAR, they would stream the races, problem is they are not interested in NASCAR. The only forms of motorsports they really seem to be into is the extreme stuff like the other forms that Monster sponsors, GRC, Gymkana and so on.
 
darlingtonfan said:
Nascar isn't the first company to chase after a new demographic while ignoring and taking for granted their core customers.This has never turned out well.
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You have a point, instead of focusing on the core fan base, NASCAR thought it would be a better to focus on the all those band wagoners , and drove away a large part of the core fan base, and then the band wagoners left, and now NASCAR is focusing on a group that largely cant give two ****** about NASCAR.
 
jws926 said:
If they had interest in NASCAR, they would stream the races, problem is they are not interested in NASCAR. The only forms of motorsports they really seem to be into is the extreme stuff like the other forms that Monster sponsors, GRC, Gymkana and so on.
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Good points as the impression I get is that younger people don't mind investing time in something but prefer to have the time filled with multiple shorter events that feature a ton of action. JMO.
 
jws926 said:
You have a point, instead of focusing on the core fan base, NASCAR thought it would be a better to focus on the all those band wagoners , and drove away a large part of the core fan base, and then the band wagoners left, and now NASCAR is focusing on a group that largely cant give two ****** about NASCAR.
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Nascar and the tracks extended the middle finger to a lot of fans in longstanding. Never a smart thing to do but really dumb when you don't have replacement customers nailed down.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
Good points as the impression I get is that younger people don't mind investing time in something but prefer to have the time filled with multiple shorter events that feature a ton of action. JMO.
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If that is a valid theory, then perhaps NASCAR should run two races per event and either reverse the winning lineup in race two to "create more excitement" or figure out a system to set the field for the second race. It sounds gimmicky (and it definitely is) but they have to do something it the current system keeps bleeding viewers in a year or two.

I have slowly grown to adopt the stages but it just feels so forced.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
Have no fear....someone will be along shortly to tell us there is 7-8 more years of TV largess left and all the commercials in all the broadcasts are sold. All is well and in 8 more years there will be a huge bidding war for all Nascar properties.
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In 8 years I doubt there will be much of a NASCAR TV audience.

The money will follow the technology. JMO, of course.
 
Just read that the NBA had the lowest rated game on ABC ever, with a 0.9 rating. Ratings in a lot of sports are going down.
 
AuzGrams said:
Just read that the NBA had the lowest rated game on ABC ever, with a 0.9 rating. Ratings in a lot of sports are going down.
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The NBA, in my opinion, has too many regular season games and too many playoff teams to create a real sense of urgency. And I say that as someone who considers themselves a basketball fan and a casual NBA fan. When the Warriors, Spurs, and Cavaliers are sitting their stars in Saturday OTA primetime games you know something is wrong.

With that said, other sports generally tend to hit peaks and troughs versus being in an almost constant decline as in NASCAR. Just last year the NBA also had their most-watched cable TV game ever when the Warriors took the Thunder into Game 7 of the WCF. The 2015-2016 regular season viewership improved year-over-year across all four major broadcast partners. There are so many various factors that go into other sports that can create this state of flux - star power, matchups, storylines. The Warriors' chase for 73 last year. The Cavs gunning for their first-ever championship and the first for Cleveland in ages. The rise of Steph Curry. Also look at the incredible boom in interest during the first two years of the Big 3 Miami Heat.

With NASCAR, you just don't see that kind of variance. It's been going down steadily for a while now and doesn't seem poised to stop anytime soon.
 
FLRacingFan said:
With NASCAR, you just don't see that kind of variance. It's been going down steadily for a while now and doesn't seem poised to stop anytime soon.
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I had started a post with a similar theme. NASCAR loyalists make these isolated comparisons to try to equate NASCAR's position to "all sports". This ignores the larger context you cite. All NBA ratings have not been trending downward for 10 years. In fact, that league pretty much bottomed out a decade ago, and overall audiences are much larger than then. Ratings were up in 2015 and 2016. If the 2017 playoffs are down significantly, that's not a good sign for them. They signed a massive TV deal also that could turn out badly as well. But these two sports entities are not at all in the same position.

What professional teams sports like the NBA, MLB, and NHL have actually experienced in the last decade is:

1. lower national TV ratings during their regular season

2. higher local and regional TV ratings and improved attendance, generating much higher revenues on this level for the franchises

3. fluctuating but generally strong post-season ratings

There is little of that nuance and complexity with NASCAR's situation. NASCAR is down across the board for many years running, with the possible exception of the Homestead finale. They created a playoffs that covers nearly 1/3 of the season, and all they have accomplished in terms of television is increased attention on the final race. The rest of the entire farce meets with a collective yawn, including the elimination races.

All sports, like all entertainment, have become more fragmented and localized. Fans are interested in their local team only to a much greater degree. This doesn't really translate to NASCAR, especially because their focus for at least two decades has been shedding the perception that they are a regional sport to go broadly (some would say blandly) national. Only the NFL managed that, it's not attainable for any other sports property IMO.
 
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I believe the game was Thunder/Rockets, I watch and follow the NBA a little bit and that would seem like a fairly marquee matchup with 2 MVP players. Not trying to defend NASCAR at all, their ratings would be much better if they had shorter races at many tracks with no stages and a simpler product.
 
I know this is only one market but holy cow, this is amazing to me. A market that NASCAR is visiting this upcoming week and has three total different NASCAR dates puts out better ratings for women's basketball and women's golf?! I know DFW hosted the Women's Final Four this past weekend but that is incredible to me.

 
FLRacingFan said:
I know this is only one market but holy cow, this is amazing to me. A market that NASCAR is visiting this upcoming week and has three total different NASCAR dates puts out better ratings for women's basketball and women's golf?! I know DFW hosted the Women's Final Four this past weekend but that is incredible to me.

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The fact that they shipped this race to FS1 doesn't help either. It was a dumb move then and it still a dumb move now.

I actually first went to my local Fox channel to see the race and was met with some nonsense. That slot isn't even filled with anything worthwhile. I really dont know what Fox and NASCAR are doing here.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I know this is only one market but holy cow, this is amazing to me. A market that NASCAR is visiting this upcoming week and has three total different NASCAR dates puts out better ratings for women's basketball and women's golf?! I know DFW hosted the Women's Final Four this past weekend but that is incredible to me.

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Thanks for the info and even a realist like myself was surprised that Nascar didn't beat golf or women's BB. Last year's spring Martinsville race had 4.2 million viewers so I will be interested to see what yesterday's race did.
 
Reck said:
The fact that they shipped this race to FS1 doesn't help either. It was a dumb move then and it still a dumb move now.

I actually first went to my local Fox channel to see the race and was met with some nonsense. That slot isn't even filled with anything worthwhile. I really dont know what Fox and NASCAR are doing here.
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It boggles my mind that both Martinsville races are on cable TV. If you have two races you should be able to split them between OTA and cable. Why the **** is arguably the best track on the schedule hiding away on cable all year?
 
Reck said:
The fact that they shipped this race to FS1 doesn't help either. It was a dumb move then and it still a dumb move now.

I actually first went to my local Fox channel to see the race and was met with some nonsense. That slot isn't even filled with anything worthwhile. I really dont know what Fox and NASCAR are doing here.
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I hope someone will jump in and corrects me where needed but my understanding is that a lot of the races moved to FS1 and NBCS in order to help build those networks subscriber bases.
 
FLRacingFan said:
It boggles my mind that both Martinsville races are on cable TV. If you have two races you should be able to split them between OTA and cable. Why the **** is arguably the best track on the schedule hiding away on cable all year?
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You are right on as Martinsville is a big draw for existing Nascar fans and potentially a race that could entice casual fans to look in more often.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I know this is only one market but holy cow, this is amazing to me. A market that NASCAR is visiting this upcoming week and has three total different NASCAR dates puts out better ratings for women's basketball and women's golf?! I know DFW hosted the Women's Final Four this past weekend but that is incredible to me.

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To be fair, it was men's golf and it was a really strong field tuning up for their biggest tournament of the year this week lol.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I hope someone will jump in and corrects me where needed but my understanding is that a lot of the races moved to FS1 and NBCS in order to help build those networks subscriber bases.
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If that's the case, I wonder how that's going.

My guess is with declining race attendance AND and TV ratings, not so much.

It's the same thing this jag offs tried pulling with FS2. I dont get that channel nor will I ever get it to see qualifying on some super obscure channel.

The only possible incentive to get FS2 is for the 24 hour of Daytona but that only happens once a year and there are plenty of online streams to cure one's needs when it comes to that.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
To be fair, it was men's golf and it was a really strong field tuning up for their biggest tournament of the year this week lol.
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Since Golf has implemented stages it is on the upswing viewer wise.
 
Reck said:
If that's the case, I wonder how that's going.

My guess is with declining race attendance AND and TV ratings, not so much.

It's the same thing this jag offs tried pulling with FS2. I dont get that channel nor will I ever get it to see qualifying on some super obscure channel.

The only possible incentive to get FS2 is for the 24 hour of Daytona but that only happens once a year and there are plenty of online streams to cure one's needs when it comes to that.
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I will never know why the networks paid so much for Nascar's broadcast rights as the series was in major decline when the contracts were signed and there were no other entities seriously bidding against them. ESPN and TNT told Nascar they were not interested in broadcasting the series so IDK what FOX and NBC were thinking. If it wasn't for the generous TV contracts Nascar would be in a heap of trouble right now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I know this is only one market but holy cow, this is amazing to me. A market that NASCAR is visiting this upcoming week and has three total different NASCAR dates puts out better ratings for women's basketball and women's golf?! I know DFW hosted the Women's Final Four this past weekend but that is incredible to me.

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Congrats guys, aren't you proud to be a fan of the 8th...wait...10th! most popular sport in the country?! Yeah awesome!
 
Reck said:
If that's the case, I wonder how that's going.

My guess is with declining race attendance AND and TV ratings, not so much.

It's the same thing this jag offs tried pulling with FS2. I dont get that channel nor will I ever get it to see qualifying on some super obscure channel.

The only possible incentive to get FS2 is for the 24 hour of Daytona but that only happens once a year and there are plenty of online streams to cure one's needs when it comes to that.
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NBCSN has done a good job of becoming the go-to for fans of niche sports. EPL, auto racing, hockey, Olympic sports. I'd say it'll help them more than it will FS1 long-term since FS1 is investing in so many other big properties.
 
Both FS1 & NBCSN want to be in the more popular tiers, which means in more viewers homes, which looks better for attracting new advertisers & increased rates for current advertisers. Since they've not been able to convince the distributors on their own, they (the networks) figure by putting some NASCAR races on those channels, they'll get the respective cable company's subscribers to do their bidding. It worked when the races were put on FX back in 2001. I'm not sure NASCAR is a "must-see" property to get enough people to petition their cable system to make FS1 & NBCSN better available like it was 15-20 years ago when it worked for FX.
 
MikeInIllinois said:
Both FS1 & NBCSN want to be in the more popular tiers, which means in more viewers homes, which looks better for attracting new advertisers & increased rates for current advertisers. Since they've not been able to convince the distributors on their own, they (the networks) figure by putting some NASCAR races on those channels, they'll get the respective cable company's subscribers to do their bidding. It worked when the races were put on FX back in 2001. I'm not sure NASCAR is a "must-see" property to get enough people to petition their cable system to make FS1 & NBCSN better available like it was 15-20 years ago when it worked for FX.
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The irony is that the people that pay for the upper tiers don't watch and the people that won't don't care if they are missing out on Nascar.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I will never know why the networks paid so much for Nascar's broadcast rights as the series was in major decline when the contracts were signed and there were no other entities seriously bidding against them. ESPN and TNT told Nascar they were not interested in broadcasting the series so IDK what FOX and NBC were thinking. If it wasn't for the generous TV contracts Nascar would be in a heap of trouble right now.
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Boy you said a mouthful there...... I thought it was the dumbest move by folks that should be considered smart and educated..... That just goes to show education doesn't make you a smart person.......
 
kymartin6 said:
Boy you said a mouthful there...... I thought it was the dumbest move by folks that should be considered smart and educated..... That just goes to show education doesn't make you a smart person.......
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What will be the broadcast value when this contract expires? A few more tweaks and changes and they should have it right...
 
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Martinsville, Va., pulled a 2.1 overnight rating on Fox Sports 1 Sunday afternoon, down a tick from last year (2.2), down 16% from 2015 (2.5), and the lowest overnight for the race since at least 2002.

Though overnights were the lowest in at least 15 years, the 5% decline is a marked improvement over the previous two weeks, when overnights fell 17%
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DixieThunder24 said:
you cant forget hulu

most of them that actually live on their own do not have cable or satellite they just pay for internet or data. Im not kidding this is how the 18-26 year olds that I work with here the military are.
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Im in that exact demographic.

I rarely watch TV, mostly live sports on the weekends when I do. No cable, just Sling TV & an antenna.
 
BobbyFord said:
What will be the broadcast value when this contract expires? A few more tweaks and changes and they should have it right...
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I'd say Brian is lucky to have 'em under contract and a stranglehold for several more years.... after that.... the contracts will more closely resemble what Monster done.. a much discounted rate.... I'd venture to say the ones who bid these won't be same ones next time around.......
 
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