NASCAR - Television Ratings Thread

Interesting as Daytona was the 2nd most watched Truck race in 2017 (1 of only 4 with over a 1 million viewers), behind the spring Martinsville race (which was on FOX and not FS1). Will have to see if the Olympics had an effect on these numbers.
 
From Nielsen Social:

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I think the single file racing we saw in the clash and duels probably played into it as well. Lots of people expected a boring race and may not have gone out of their way to turn it on.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
I think the single file racing we saw in the clash and duels probably played into it as well. Lots of people expected a boring race and may not have gone out of their way to turn it on.
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I doubt it, only die hard fans watch the clash or the duals and they are going to be tuned in for the 500 as well.
 
+You have to pick thru the B.S. the ratings people are so stick n ball biased, but usually after they dig up all the muck, down at the bottom



Despite the lower numbers, Sunday’s race was the top non-Olympic sporting event of the weekend. It beat that night’s NBA All-Star Game by 23% in ratings (5.3 to 4.3) and 22% in viewership (9.3M to 7.65M),
 
StandOnIt said:
+You have to pick thru the B.S. the ratings people are so stick n ball biased, but usually after they dig up all the muck, down at the bottom



Despite the lower numbers, Sunday’s race was the top non-Olympic sporting event of the weekend. It beat that night’s NBA All-Star Game by 23% in ratings (5.3 to 4.3) and 22% in viewership (9.3M to 7.65M),
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Just my 2 cents but as long as the numbers are legit who cares about commentary? If a comparison is done between the 500 and the all star game and the olympics the right thing to do is a year over year or with the olympics last time they were on. If those things are off by about 25% then you know there is a large problem. If they are off far less then 25% then Nascar has a bigger problem. Im still watching and cant do more so Im not worried or bothered.
 
They were quick to point out Nascar percentages, but didn't say a thing about the hoops ratings which have been flat for 5 years and over 70% down from their peak. I call that bias.
 
FLRacingFan said:
http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekend-sports-tv-ratings-2-17-18-2018.html
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Thanks for posting that FL. I'm not a TV expert like some on here, but a lot of eyeballs were on racing this past weekend. More than were on the Olympics in the same time slot. Not too bad for a niche sport.

If fewer people watched the Daytona 500 than a year ago, that obviously is not good news for the business of Nascar, but I don't understand why people translate that into calls for fewer races, shorter season, etc. Are we trying to free up time slots for more cornhole tournaments? More English Pub Darts?

I think I agree with @StandOnIt ... Racing doesn't need to beat football or the Olympics in order to survive... it really needs to be the dominant racing series that draws better than cornhole, darts, and bowling for dollars.
 
Compared to a year ago, looks like the Clash was up 400,000, the Daytona 500 was down 2.6 million, the Duels were down around 500,000, and the Xfinity & Truck races were down roughly 400,000 viewers apiece. Usually Daytona serves as the benchmark for the season for all 3 series. However, in this case, seriously think you have to get past the Olympics to see if this trend continues.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Thanks for posting that FL. I'm not a TV expert like some on here, but a lot of eyeballs were on racing this past weekend. More than were on the Olympics in the same time slot. Not too bad for a niche sport.

If fewer people watched the Daytona 500 than a year ago, that obviously is not good news for the business of Nascar, but I don't understand why people translate that into calls for fewer races, shorter season, etc. Are we trying to free up time slots for more cornhole tournaments? More English Pub Darts?

I think I agree with @StandOnIt ... Racing doesn't need to beat football or the Olympics in order to survive... it really needs to be the dominant racing series that draws better than cornhole, darts, and bowling for dollars.
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All anybody has to do is google "ratings down"..Daytime programming, prime time, almost every category a person can think of will pop up and they are all trending down and have been for quite a while. All you see is "record lows"..Some on here were touting how well B ball was doing. It has less than a third of the viewership it had in the 90's, down to a minuscule audience that has been flat for the last five years. Even the great kick ball hope, Soccer is trending down. Folks, they all aren't going to disappear in a apocalyptic explosion. They are going to adjust with the times and the size of their audience IMO.
 
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StandOnIt said:
Some on here were touting how well B ball was doing. It has less than a third of the viewership it had in the 90's, down to a minuscule audience that has been flat for the last five years.
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This is very misleading as it's only looking at the All-Star Game. The last three NBA Finals have all hit post-Jordan highs, and the league is up 15% nationally and 9% locally so far in the regular season so there is indeed a lot of momentum there. For any kind of programming to be doing as well as it has in two decades in the current climate is nothing short of remarkable.

Soccer, I will agree, has stagnated for the time being and the absence of the USMNT from this year's World Cup isn't going to do any favors.
 
As far as commentary goes, there's no gamesmanship or fudging going on. NASCAR and the NBA tied in the overnights Sunday, and NASCAR will always increase and the NBA will always decrease when the finals come out because NASCAR does better in smaller markets than in metered markets; vice versa for the NBA. That's not being sneaky or anything.
 
FLRacingFan said:
This is very misleading as it's only looking at the All-Star Game. The last three NBA Finals have all hit post-Jordan highs, and the league is up 15% nationally and 9% locally so far in the regular season so there is indeed a lot of momentum there. For any kind of programming to be doing as well as it has in two decades in the current climate is nothing short of remarkable.

Soccer, I will agree, has stagnated for the time being and the absence of the USMNT from this year's World Cup isn't going to do any favors.
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http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/sports/nba-finals-tv-ratings-1974-2008/
 
gnomesayin said:
More nuggets from Sports Media Watch:

"To put the numbers in perspective, three years ago the Atlanta 500 — not exactly on the level of Daytona — pulled the same 5.1 overnight."

I would love it if some other race somehow topped the Daytona 500, but yeah, that's not gonna happen.

"Despite the low numbers, Sunday’s race is on pace to finish as the top FOX program since last month’s NFC Championship Game."

This illustrates why TV networks continue to pay higher and higher rights fees for live sports. Even a badly rated Daytona 500 is still the biggest thing Fox has going for it outside of football. It is traditional entertainment TV that has taken the real ratings dive.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/02/daytona-500-ratings-overnights-low/#respond
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Fox has serious problems. They're not the network of American Idol, House and Bones anymore. They're on the verge of falling to fifth place, behind the historically low-rated CW network. IIRC, Fox's ratings were down for the NFL significantly but CBS was either flat or up. It was a combination of that and crappy, meaningless primetime games that were a drag on the NFL's ratings.

There would still be a decline, but I bet the Daytona 500 would have higher ratings if it was on NBC.
 
FLRacingFan said:
This is very misleading as it's only looking at the All-Star Game. The last three NBA Finals have all hit post-Jordan highs, and the league is up 15% nationally and 9% locally so far in the regular season so there is indeed a lot of momentum there. For any kind of programming to be doing as well as it has in two decades in the current climate is nothing short of remarkable.

Soccer, I will agree, has stagnated for the time being and the absence of the USMNT from this year's World Cup isn't going to do any favors.
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take a look at this FL if you please, regular season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association_on_television#Regular_season
 
FLRacingFan said:
This list stops at 2008. Every Finals since then has hit 16.9M+, minus 2009 (14.3M) and 2014 (15.5M) and the last three have averaged 19.9M, 20.2M, and 20.4M.
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here is another long range chart of the NBA playoffs. If you notice, if the press used the same losing attendance drama thing for the NBA, and used the late 90's time frame like they always regurgitate for Nascar? down from this year record down game from that year? but they don't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals_television_ratings
 
StandOnIt said:
here is another long range chart of the NBA playoffs. If you notice, if the press used the same losing attendance drama thing for the NBA, and used the late 90's time frame like they always regurgitate for Nascar? down from this year record down game from that year? but they don't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals_television_ratings
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Actually, "the press" is using data showing a decline since 2006. Since 2006, the NBA has been up and NASCAR is down.
 
StandOnIt said:
take a look at this FL if you please, regular season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association_on_television#Regular_season
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The league is currently on track for its best regular season since 2012-2013. Post-Jordan, that is very good. Considering even more games are aired on TV (normally diluting ratings/viewership), that is very good.

StandOnIt said:
here is another long range chart of the NBA playoffs. If you notice, if the press used the same losing attendance drama thing for the NBA, and used the late 90's time frame like they always regurgitate for Nascar? down from this year record down game from that year? but they don't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals_television_ratings
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They don't say that because the NBA's record lows were in the mid-2000s, and the league has generally been increasing since then. There used to be times where a race at Pocono would draw a better rating than an NBA Finals game. NASCAR still has yet to hit its trough.
 
StandOnIt said:
you are arguing with yourself. They can fluff it all they want and they do, but like Nascar, or football, or B ball all of them are down from their heydays and that was my point. I'm done. none of them are going anywhere.
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If that was your point I think it is a valid one, and true in the broadest sense. None of the major sports are currently at an all-time high, and all are down from whenever that was. The problem is that you made a lot of questionable claims about NBA viewership to make it, and this just opens you up to being corrected.

Nobody bothers to compare MLB to its "America's pastime" heyday anymore, which was many decades ago. They track it vs. where it was five or ten years ago. Same with the NBA, for the most part. It has not been expected to compete with the Jordan-fueled '90s, though there has been some resurgence of this as it is starting to approach that level of prominence again.

It is no longer reasonable to compare NASCAR to its 2001-2006 peak. It will likely never reach those levels again, so what's the point of dwelling on it? I agree, expectations should be reset. However, it is reasonable to track year-to-year trends. From a business standpoint, they need to stem the declines as much as possible.

Of course NASCAR isn't going away. Can we put that to rest and have rational discussions about television ratings in the television ratings thread?
 
gnomesayin said:
If that was your point I think it is a valid one, and true in the broadest sense. None of the major sports are currently at an all-time high, and all are down from whenever that was. The problem is that you made a lot of questionable claims about NBA viewership to make it, and this just opens you up to being corrected.

Nobody bothers to compare MLB to its "America's pastime" heyday anymore, which was many decades ago. They track it vs. where it was five or ten years ago. Same with the NBA, for the most part. It has not been expected to compete with the Jordan-fueled '90s, though there has been some resurgence of this as it is starting to approach that level of prominence again.

It is no longer reasonable to compare NASCAR to its 2001-2006 peak. It will likely never reach those levels again, so what's the point of dwelling on it? I agree, expectations should be reset. However, it is reasonable to track year-to-year trends. From a business standpoint, they need to stem the declines as much as possible.

Of course NASCAR isn't going away. Can we put that to rest and have rational discussions about television ratings in the television ratings thread?
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I don't think I did make questionable claims, and sports writers do that all the time for Nascar, but hardly ever for stick in ball. So unreasonable or not, the press isn't doing "trends" but a hatchet job, just like I could do in the hacked out (no writer here) job i did below. In 93 Basketball NBA playoffs had a rating of 14.2/ with a 22 share with 22.91 million viewers. 2017? rating of 4.2 with a 7 share 7.75 million.

I said the ratings for B ball playoffs have been flat for IDK 5 or 6 years. Throw out the high and the low and they have been flat longer than that. This rating goes from 08 to 2017, at first glance it sure looks pretty flat to me averaging it out...Now if I want to add a little drama? Basketball has never reached the historic record highs in the days of old with a 22.91 million audience down to the 2017 rating of 7.75 million..NBA ratings have remained relatively flat for the last 7 years. And then down at the bottom of the article they will finally say 7.75 billion was the highest rating in 4 years or something similar. That's my point. Point being you can do just about anything with a statistic and an article.

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I like Nascar ratings in a rolling 4 year range as it isnt to big to give bad info but is big enough to show those Larry Mc trends. I see Nascar ratings as a tool some one can look at real fast and get a quick idea of how things are going. I dont see Nascar ever going away but resetting to adjust to the demand of today and tomorrow.
 
Same here, this chart shows a trend. I could do without the drama they seem to do for Nascar and glaze over for other sports for the most part.

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LewTheShoe said:
If fewer people watched the Daytona 500 than a year ago, that obviously is not good news for the business of Nascar, but I don't understand why people translate that into calls for fewer races, shorter season, etc. Are we trying to free up time slots for more cornhole tournaments? More English Pub Darts?
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My argument for a shortened calendar (with only a few less actual points events) never mentioned Daytona 500 TV ratings, and I didn't see any others arguing for it that did either. I don't want to repeat myself ad nauseam, partly because aunty is correct to an extent that it's an idea that will not and cannot happen in the foreseeable future. Such arguments do relate to what the TV ratings look like for races at the opposite end of the schedule, and the reality that the Chase / Playoffs has failed to have a meaningful impact on the lower viewership of the final 10 races except for Homestead.

But really, unless NASCAR finds that when it goes to negotiate new broadcast deals for 2025 and beyond that potential second half of the season partners balk at competing against football season and want a different calendar, this is an abstract discussion about the effects of oversaturation, fatigue, etc. If they raced 52 weeks each year, presumably each individual event would become somewhat less valuable. If they raced only 10 weeks per year, each individual event would presumably become more lucrative. The balance lies somewhere in between. Maybe 38 weekly events is just right, maybe not.
 
I think I would let some other series be a pioneer for less events. Seems to me somebody was saying that one of the networks bought the rights for Thursday night football for a pretty good number, in the light of the press hammering over saturation. articles and lower attendance drama. The going up against the football argument doesn't make any sense either. I sure didn't see any less commercials somebody was buying and selling something while they were kicking the ol pig skin around.. Keeping your product out there in the spotlight works much better than less is more in the sales business. Doesn't pay to be a pioneer odds wise, once you loose you audience or your customer, it's hard to get them back from both sides of the coin.
 
Lotsa stuff to chew on here. I cant say Ive thought much about less races each year but I figure that stuff will shake out with the next TV deal. As near as I can tell the tracks are doing super duper right now and its the teams that are hurting some. I figure if the next TV deal is for alot less money then Nascar will have to reduce sanctioning fees or tracks wont be able to afford to put on the show.

Comparing the 2014 500 with the 2018 500 is a big old doesnt compute thing cuz more people probably would have watched if the delay didnt happen.

I figure if Nascar is losing viewers at about the same pace as other sports then it is what it is. If they are losing more fans that aint good
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
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If my memory serves me right, I believe Jr was leading when they went to the rain delay, and the last restart it looked like he had a super sized trash bag on the grill in the closing laps and he kept his foot on the floor to win it 4 years ago
 
:pbjtime: So the texters do tune in as suspected. Big growth in the crowd Nascar is looking for, just not on the TV.
 
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