NASCAR - Television Ratings Thread

Mopardh9 said:
Well here are 3 good reasons:
1. No connection between cars on the track and ones the consumer actually purchases.
2. Up until about a year ago, terrible racing.
3. Too many gimmicks and rules changed in the past 5 years.
I could list probably 7 more, but those are the most important.
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Maybe you should place the announcers at the top of the list. Today I had to mute
the race. Burton was talking faster than the cars could go.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I was never looking for any justification for the rules change next year but I figured someone would come up with a way to track things. Maybe they will at some point as it is unusual for a company to make changes without monitoring the impact.

Even though I like things this year I understand if Nascar feels it needs to change to appeal to more people. I will tune in to see what it looks like and go from there.
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Oh I thought you said this
We think that doing what the 2019 package will do is fundamentally wrong
 
Team Penske said:
Maybe you should place the announcers at the top of the list. Today I had to mute
the race. Burton was talking faster than the cars could go.
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I thought they were better today than they have ever been. Not that they were that great..but it was an Xfinity race, they were probably saving their voices for the cup race
 
StandOnIt said:
Oh I thought you said this
We think that doing what the 2019 package will do is fundamentally wrong
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I think taking a speed contest and deliberately slowing it down is fundamentally wrong. However if that is what the “vast majority” of fans want and will help the sport get new fans then it is exactly what they should do.

One thing is I don’t think people that don’t think like me are wrong at all as I see this whole thing as a preference. Another thing is if after watching in 2019 I don’t care for the new rules I sure as heck am not going to keep watching and then come on here and complain.

Oh and another thing is I am never going to ask again if there is a way to measure how well the fans like things next year.:)
 
IanMcVittie said:
I think taking a speed contest and deliberately slowing it down is fundamentally wrong.
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I'm inclined to think like you, but I'm not an absolutist about speed. I would rephrase that deliberately making a contest of skill easier for the competitors so as to produce closer and more entertaining matches is...not at all what I'm interested in.
 
IanMcVittie said:
My biggest regret is that people like me have been misunderstood. We think that doing what the 2019 package will do is fundamentally wrong. We want to see a speed contest not a slowed down form of entertainment that remove what the best of the best drivers possess. We like things this year because it is more organic.
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I don't think you have been "misunderstood." My observer's hypothesis is that guys like you and me (and some others on here) is that we have been counted, and revealed that there aren't enough of us to provide Nascar's long term business objectives. Even in this tiny community of avid Nascar fans, those of us who appreciate the often-subtle nuances of skill-based racing are outnumbered by those who crave more beating and banging and wrecking.

I believe the 2017-18 racing on intermediate tracks has been extraordinary... as good as *any* prior era of Nascar, and better than most prior eras. I'd like to believe that the count of fans was taken too soon and/or the count is wrong... but I doubt that. I'm not optimistic that we'll get a Gen 7 car in a year or two that magically emphasizes racing skill rather than some false entertainment metric. Will Nascar un-jump the shark? Time will tell, but I'm not holding my breath.
gnomesayin said:
I'm inclined to think like you, but I'm not an absolutist about speed. I would rephrase that deliberately making a contest of skill easier for the competitors so as to produce closer and more entertaining matches is...not at all what I'm interested in.
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Yep. I completely agree with your modification of Ian's description. Not trying to parse words here, but degree of difficulty in a contest of skill is what I seek, not raw speed.
 
You guys are unique, most people don't want to watch a driver lead 3/4' of the race out front in clean air, you might be right on it is skillful, but most people find it pretty boring and uneventful. Stages have helped and broke up the monotony. The restarts afterwards more then anything else has improved the racing. But this package has produced the lowest number of passes for the lead since the mid 90's aero wars. I don't see the correlation between slower speeds producing less skillful racing. If that were so, Richard Petty, Allison and others weren't skillful when they were running 20, 30 MPH slower than they are today on the same tracks. It doesn't make sense to me anyway. Somehow it isn't skillful to have the opportunity to execute a pass at slower speeds when today at the speeds they run make it almost impossible to do so except the slower speeds after a restart or a caution.
 
There is a reason they run speed trials on the salt flats rather than oval tracks of any size.
If total speed is what a person desires, they maybe should give up on Nascar.
The speed in nascar has reached a high where any mistake is now a caution or a crash fest.
At one time you had the ability to drive around the track and pass cars that did not have
the same ability ( the car) or the driver skilled enough to overcome the cars weaknesses.
Racing today is all about who can overdrive the car at the fastest speed until they crash out.
 
The whole thing seems simple to me and that is I like what I like and you like what you like and we each respect each other’s choices.

One of the reasons I came here was to talk nascar because I don’t have the chance to talk to others face to face about it.

I like to talk to other people about their ideas as I find it interesting. Disagreement is going to happen but I would rather just be agreeable about it. We probably won’t change each other’s minds anyway.

Some subjects I try and steer clear of (like Kyle Busch) because they are polarizing and turn nasty. Every forum has a bully or 2 or someone that tries to change the narrative or move the goalposts in conversation. IMO they make life harder for the rest and like it that way.

Some people hate NASCAR and find fault with everything. Other people are paranoid and defensive about what they perceive as the slightest sleight toward NASCAR.

Hopefully it all works out:)
 
IanMcVittie said:
Other people are paranoid and defensive about what they perceive as the slightest sleight toward NASCAR.
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That about sums up those that are all over me in the NASCAR Death Bed thread and in the thread I started when I first came here about electric cars in NASCAR. Change scares people and they don't like it.
 
Towmater said:
Change scares people and they don't like it.
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Maybe "Some" people but not anybody that I know. Opinions vary and mine as always is just leave things alone for awhile. But on the other hand sometimes the Nascar powers that be make a change that I like. It's my opinion also that Nascar isn't dying. It's just going through an adjustment phase and will settle in at It's new level wherever that is. And I'll still be attending races and watching/DVRing every one.
 
Teams have built sleek fast race cars, that cause problems for tight racing, so Nascar takes those sleek race cars give them less power so races will be the way it was with boxier cars. Why not just make cars more like Street cars and stop the aero improvements?
 
I am surprised we didn’t see the normal cable to network increase but there are a lot of things vying for people’s attention this time of year.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I am surprised we didn’t see the normal cable to network increase but there are a lot of things vying for people’s attention this time of year.
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I think we did see it, but we also lost so many viewers because people have become accustomed to Kansas putting on a boring race. I didn't think the race was that bad, but I will say that if it wasn't for the playoffs, there wouldn't have been much to talk about.
 
We all may disagree on a number of topics but one thing that gets universal approval is the great experience you get at the track. If you can get someone to the track I think you have a better chance of making a fan than introducing them to the sport on TV.

IMO the angles TV uses and the unprofessional broadcast actually hurt the sport. Most people want much more than to have to use the leader board to see passing

I think the tracks should take lemons and make lemonade and give away blocks of tickets to whatever age group they would like to count as fans. Desperate times call for desperate measures and you don’t need your Masters to understand we are in desperate times.

Giving away seats that would go unused anyway to targeted groups makes sense on many levels. No business likes to give things away but these are not normal times. As it stands today it won’t be long before 30k is considered a good crowd for many tracks.
 
Kansas was the lowest rated and least watched NASCAR race since at least 2000. Get ya some of that.
 
Towmater said:
I am here for the racing. I enjoy NASCAR.
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Very convincing.

It isn't among the top 10 lowest rated or least watched races since 2000. It was the lowest rated and least watched race on network TV during that timeframe, an important distinction.

That said, it is yet another sign that the casual NASCAR audience doesn't care in the slightest about the playoffs sheninangans, and that it is hard to justify Kansas occupying two dates on the schedule. The May race also attracts low numbers for that period.
 
Oh, look I messed-up. It was the lowest rated race on broadcast. You know on FREE TV (where everyone says they would watch them races on NASCAR radio) and it was the lowest rated race since they started keeping track in 2000. That makes everything so much better. Baw-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA.

Also, it was the lowest-watched Kansas race since 2001. BTW, in 2016 when the race was last broadcast on NBC it has fallen 20% in the ratings.
 
My post about the offending moderated post was erased. Why?????????? I didn't talk about the other poster who made the post and thanked moderation for making the change.
 
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Just to provide information on the fall in ratings - Ten years ago, the Kansas race had a 3.2 and 5.25 million on ABC.

I hope the above posts have enough substance for those that have been critiquing my post and have found them lacking. If not, you don't expect much anyway so no skin off my back...LMAO.
 
I wonder if NASCAR has ever commissioned a study to find out why so many fans have walked away? The amount of people that no longer watch races numbers in the millions so there should be a good base from which to draw.

I understand that it is documented that the majority of fans want dumbed down racing next year. Why fans left should be documented too.
 
Yet, every post has to be commented upon. Can't have anybody in NASCAR Land thinking and saying things that make a few posters uncomfortable. It could get out of hand. Next thing ya know there will be anarchy. Anarchy, I tell ya. LOL.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I wonder if NASCAR has ever commissioned a study to find out why so many fans have walked away? The amount of people that no longer watch races numbers in the millions so there should be a good base from which to draw.
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That's a good place to start. Maybe they did. If so, the last 10 years have provided little relief from that exodus.
 
Towmater said:
That's a good place to start. Maybe they did. If so, the last 10 years have provided little relief from that exodus.
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IMO NASCAR became very arrogant during the boom years which has turned into ignorance the last 10 years or so. I would go as far to say that NASCAR is profitable in spite of itself not because of itsel.

As far as all this other nonsense goes don’t worry about it as it will never be resolved.
 
Towmater said:
Also, it was the lowest-watched Kansas race since 2001.
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Also not accurate, as rather than going back to 2001, one could look back five months and find a lower-rated and lesser-watched Cup race at Kansas Speedway.

UPDATE: Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series Kansas 400 earned a 1.2 rating and 2.04 million viewers on FS1, down 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (1.6, 2.6M) and down 36% and 35% respectively from 2016 (1.9, 3.1M).
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Http://www.espn.com/jayski/pages/st...Vaw20MepZtpcLe200PGGgIA-1&cshid=1540713199862
 
I forgot to post the article from sportsmediawatch

NASCAR Hits Broadcast Network Low at Kansas
Lowest rated Cup Series race on broadcast since at least 2000

It was a routine week for NASCAR, in that ratings hit another low.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs from Kansas earned a 1.7 rating and 2.75 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, flat in ratings and down a fraction of a percent in viewership from last year on NBCSN (1.7, 2.76M), and down 19% and 20% respectively from 2016 on NBC (2.1, 3.45M).

Chase Elliott‘s win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Cup Series race on broadcast television since at least 2000. The previous lows were a 1.8 (two races) and 2.86 million (Charlotte last year).

In addition, it ranks as the least-watched Kansas race since at least 2001. The previous lows were set last year. A decade ago, the race had a 3.2 and 5.25 million on ABC.
 
Towmater said:
That about sums up those that are all over me in the NASCAR Death Bed thread and in the thread I started when I first came here about electric cars in NASCAR. Change scares people and they don't like it.
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That's true about most people my age, or any age.
My grandfather grew up before cars, planes, movie theaters and television. Then he watched a man walk on the moon. For him things were moving to fast.
We had no TV until I was 12, regular cars in the town were 40's and 50's.
A phone was something you picked up and asked the girl to get you so and so.
Then came a phone you actually had to dial, a phone in my service truck, a bag phone you could carry and now we have a phone that makes cameras and video machines obsolete.
My television plays and records programs so I can watch when I want, cars drive on lakes and boats run on land.
I doubt Nascar making a few changes on the cars or the way they show the races is going to move the needle much in what life has to offer.
 
Might want to advise SportsMediaWatch of their mistake, and to quote:

"In addition, it ranks as the least-watched Kansas race since at least 2001"
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/10/nascar-ratings-nbc-lowest-kansas/

Team Penske said:
I doubt Nascar making a few changes on the cars or the way they show the races is going to move the needle much in what life has to offer.
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I agree with this. The world is changing and electric vehicles with no drivers are headed our way. The trend is moving to the use of ride sharing companies in bigger cities and less vehicle ownership in the younger generation. Makes one ponder what changes NASCAR will have to move through in the next 2 or 3 decades to draw fans to the sport.
 
Team Penske said:
That's true about most people my age, or any age.
My grandfather grew up before cars, planes, movie theaters and television. Then he watched a man walk on the moon. For him things were moving to fast.
We had no TV until I was 12, regular cars in the town were 40's and 50's.
A phone was something you picked up and asked the girl to get you so and so.
Then came a phone you actually had to dial, a phone in my service truck, a bag phone you could carry and now we have a phone that makes cameras and video machines obsolete.
My television plays and records programs so I can watch when I want, cars drive on lakes and boats run on land.
I doubt Nascar making a few changes on the cars or the way they show the races is going to move the needle much in what life has to offer.
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The memories of the anticipation of the lunar landing and the stories of my grandmother including what happened when her horse first saw a car!

As far as ratings and interest I question a lot of NASCAR’s moves but they are certainly throwing pales of spaghetti against the kitchen ceiling hoping something sticks.
 
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