NASCAR - Television Ratings Thread

Matthew2470 said:
Serious questions:

Why should fans worry about ratings and attendance?
  • Are there concerns that NASCAR is going to get cancelled from TV?
  • Are there concerns that tracks are going to close?
  • Are there concerns about more teams shutting down?
  • Are there concerns that big league stock car racing is going to cease to exist?
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NASCAR will not get cancelled from TV, but barring a miracle, they will get far less money on the next TV deal, and everyone will feel the impact. Teams, tracks and the sanctioning body. This will lead to teams and tracks closing.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
NASCAR will not get cancelled from TV, but barring a miracle, they will get far less money on the next TV deal, and everyone will feel the impact. Teams, tracks and the sanctioning body. This will lead to teams and tracks closing.
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I'm not so sure, it might be a good thing for NASCAR. Yes it will hurt in the beginning, but teams will adjust after a year or two and we might get some real competition again instead of just a handful of big teams that are capable of winning.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
NASCAR will not get cancelled from TV, but barring a miracle, they will get far less money on the next TV deal, and everyone will feel the impact. Teams, tracks and the sanctioning body. This will lead to teams and tracks closing.
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Which will lead to even less money for the following TV deal, and the trend that started 10 years ago will continue. We may end up watching 4 races a year at each ISC track to boost their profits. The France siblings have turned the whole thing into a giant fuster cluck.
 
A downsize would be good if it weren't for the fact that any new track has to have millions in upgrades for SAFER, media center, etc.
 
I will say there is no way in hell I would’ve gone to the Vegas race and I love NASCAR. Cold weather is one thing, but 100° heat is just nasty.

Also I wonder if we can get rid of the win and advance BS and do what INDYCAR does with double points. Just make your races worth more and you’ll see some hard hard fighting throughout the field. You can still eliminate down but do it with points, not wins. Drama always exists in the field so bring it to the spotlight
 
Mispeedway15 said:
I will say there is no way in hell I would’ve gone to the Vegas race and I love NASCAR. Cold weather is one thing, but 100° heat is just nasty.

Also I wonder if we can get rid of the win and advance BS and do what INDYCAR does with double points. Just make your races worth more and you’ll see some hard hard fighting throughout the field. You can still eliminate down but do it with points, not wins. Drama always exists in the field so bring it to the spotlight
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Nascar made a huge mistake when they made it all about winning. No matter what you do, only one team can win every week. The points battle through the field used to bring excitement for the fans of all drivers, every race. Now it's only about who takes the checkers, the rest don't matter.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
Also I wonder if we can get rid of the win and advance BS and do what INDYCAR does with double points. Just make your races worth more and you’ll see some hard hard fighting throughout the field. You can still eliminate down but do it with points, not wins. Drama always exists in the field so bring it to the spotlight
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If it were me in control, I'd dump the chase/playoffs completely, but make the Daytona 500, Coke 600, Bristol night race, Brickyard 400, Southern 500 and Homestead double points events.
 
If we have to keep the playoffs, let's make the first round only applicable to the teams that have only 1 win. Any team with more than one win gets a bye through the first round of playoffs. Anyone with only one win at the end of the first round of playoffs gets eliminated no matter how many teams that is.

It's the teams that have more wins that are most deserving of the championship, not the teams that might have gotten lucky at talladega or daytona.
 
from sportsmediawatch.com

NASCAR’s New Vegas Race Posts Same Old Low Rating
Even a brand new race is not immune to the NASCAR ratings slide.

Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Las Vegas earned a 1.3 rating and 2.14 million viewers on NBCSN — down a tick in ratings and 7% in viewership from last year’s playoff opener on the same weekend (Chicagoland: 1.4, 2.31M).

Compared to the race it replaced on the schedule, New Hampshire, ratings were flat and viewership increased 7% from 1.99 million.

Excluding rainouts, Brad Keselowski‘s win tied the lowest NASCAR playoff rating ever (135 telecasts dating back to 2004). It matched last year’s races at New Hampshire and Dover. It was also the third-least watched, ahead of those same two races.
 
Richmond pulled a 1.1 overnight number. Down from 1.2 last year.

 
The percentage declines have been somewhat smaller the past couple weeks than the season average. However, audiences are smaller this time of year, so there is less room to fall. These playoffs races remain the least watched of the year, whether they air on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. The playoffs hullabaloo remains utterly pointless in this sense.
 
gnomesayin said:
The percentage declines have been somewhat smaller the past couple weeks than the season average. However, audiences are smaller this time of year, so there is less room to fall. These playoffs races remain the least watched of the year, whether they air on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. The playoffs hullabaloo remains utterly pointless in this sense.
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Yes, I don't think playoff races move the needle with diehard fans because they will watch regardless and the needle won't get moved with the casual fan because they are going to be watching football or doing something else.
 
I think the playoff crap tends to lessen the beating and banging we get at some of the short tracks as well when these guys are so focused on points racing every week.
 
I get what they’re doing though as every other sports league does it. The schedule has gotten so long that wins do not carry the cache they used to. It’s a big deal to win an Indycar race as they go only 17 times a season, we run 36! It almost dilutes the points
 
Mispeedway15 said:
I get what they’re doing though as every other sports league does it. The schedule has gotten so long that wins do not carry the cache they used to. It’s a big deal to win an Indycar race as they go only 17 times a season, we run 36! It almost dilutes the points
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That's the problem, NASCAR is oversaturated as a product and could stand to go back to 32-34 races a year and end in October.
 
AuzGrams said:
That's the problem, NASCAR is oversaturated as a product and could stand to go back to 32-34 races a year and end in October.
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I would say it's the opposite, they are under saturated. World of Outlaws races sometimes three times a week and it is working well for them. I agree with Kez, they should race 50 races and hit some smaller tracks at night during the week if they are going to shorten the length of the season if having races during football season is a problem. It seems to be a problem for footballers anyway, I don't know what the powers that be think about it, they have been doing it for years. It solves a lot of problems, boredom for the same stale bunch of tracks and they get to go to different markets and do more short track racing. They might get more local home track racers, fans and sponsors involved, that seems to be working a bit in the trucks especially on the smaller courses.
 
StandOnIt said:
I would say it's the opposite, they are under saturated. World of Outlaws races sometimes three times a week and it is working well for them. I agree with Kez, they should race 50 races and hit some smaller tracks at night during the week if they are going to shorten the length of the season if having races during football season is a problem. It seems to be a problem for footballers anyway, I don't know what the powers that be think about it, they have been doing it for years. It solves a lot of problems, boredom for the same stale bunch of tracks and they get to go to different markets and do more short track racing. They might get more local home track racers, fans and sponsors involved, that seems to be working a bit in the trucks especially on the smaller courses.
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Racing 50 times a year would be OK with me but do you think there would be enough sponsors or TV money to make it happen?
 
FLRacingFan said:
Cup staves off a sub-1.0 rating for now, coming in at 1.03 with 1.774M viewers.
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The Internet: "More short tracks! More short tracks! Real race fans want more short tracks!"

Me: "We just had one... Where were ya?"

The Internet: "Oh, I guess I missed it. Anyway, not THAT short track. Bring back North Wilkesboro!"
 
LewTheShoe said:
The Internet: "More short tracks! More short tracks! Real race fans want more short tracks!"

Me: "We just had one... Where were ya?"

The Internet: "Oh, I guess I missed it. Anyway, not THAT short track. Bring back North Wilkesboro!"
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In fairness I think if Nascar put on any race from any track of any length against college or pro football it is going to get killed. For the most part the first few races of the year draw fairly well but after Memorial Day numbers seem to fall off regardless of track.
 
LewTheShoe said:
The Internet: "More short tracks! More short tracks! Real race fans want more short tracks!"

Me: "We just had one... Where were ya?"

The Internet: "Oh, I guess I missed it. Anyway, not THAT short track. Bring back North Wilkesboro!"
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Richmond is not a short track.
 
(From that article) :eek:
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AuzGrams said:
Dale Jr's retirement has a lot to do with the ratings if you ask me.
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It is likely a significant factor this season, but one of several. It's a cumulative effect of many causes. Junior running an Xfinity race with considerable promotion resulted in a 4% ratings increase from last year. That's something, but we're not talking Tiger Woods effect here.

I believe NBCSN's overall viewership is actually trending downward when it should have been growing as an upstart. I think the lack of visibility there is really hurting, along with everything else that has been mentioned.
 
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If 5 years ago someone had told us that one day the ratings would be 1.0 we would have thought he was insane.

This is the result of lucky dogs, chase, stages, playoffs , cookie cutter tracks and the usual crap.
Thank you NASCAR for killing what once was an amazing sport.
 
Are the comparisons really accurate? Are the rating an indication of how many people
are watching Nascar Cup Racing? OR is the decline in viewership a result of all the races being shown on two startup mickey mouse cable channels? They gambled that people would rush out to buy these channels and I don't think in this economy that expectation was warranted.
Personally I blame the the networks for a good part of the decline. Many people I talked to have told me they used to watch Nascar but now they find it boring and most of all "PHONY"
I agree with that assessment.
 
this is the whole article

from sportsmediawatch.com

The Loneliest Number: NASCAR Hits New Low
Richmond posts 1.0 rating, lowest for Cup Series since at least '00

NASCAR ratings hit a new low last weekend.

Last Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Richmond (Va.) earned a 1.0 rating and 1.77 million viewers on NBCSN, down 17% in ratings and viewership from last year (1.2, 2.14M) and down 38% and 34% respectively from 2016 (1.6, 2.71M).

Kyle Busch‘s win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched NASCAR Cup Series race since at least 2000. The previous lows were a 1.2 (multiple races) and 1.99 million (New Hampshire last year). Six of the ten lowest rated and least-watched races have taken place this season alone.
 
The benchmark for Charlotte is a 1.84/2.859M for the race held one week later last year. Going to be interesting to see how the ROVAL™ compares.
 
mathematician said:
If 5 years ago someone had told us that one day the ratings would be 1.0 we would have thought he was insane.

This is the result of lucky dogs, chase, stages, playoffs , cookie cutter tracks and the usual crap.
Thank you NASCAR for killing what once was an amazing sport.
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5 years ago was when the new TV deals were signed. Some of these figures have been cut in half since then. I have to wonder how the NBC execs are feeling about this.
 
AuzGrams said:
Dale Jr's retirement has a lot to do with the ratings if you ask me.
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According to some Jr's retirement and Tiger's leap back into being a contender in golf dove sealed NASCAR's fate...lol.
 
I don't know that I've ever seen a race as heavily promoted as this one was, that had to play a huge role.
 
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