NASCAR - Television Ratings Thread

AndyMarquisLive said:
F1 was higher in the 18-49 on Sunday, but not much.

I don't think there's any reason to panic. The main reason for the double digit drops during the playoffs is Chase Elliott missing out.

NASCAR just needs to make sure Chase Elliott makes it to the final four every year from now on. (I'm being facetious.)

Plus, there were some huge games in that 1pm window. Most of the country either had Rams/Cowboys (Cowboys are ALWAYS an enormous ratings draw, which is why their games are usually in primetime) or Eagles/Redskins on Fox at 1pm, and then CBS had the Jaguars/Steelers game that should've been flexed to primetime and the Battle of MetLife in the 1pm window.
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I think there have been some outstanding NFL matchups this year which I’m sure has impacted NASCAR. Just need to get Chase Elliott healthy and have more games featuring the Giants & Bears!
 
AlTerego said:
dailydownforce.com

Jon Lewis on NASCAR's TV Viewership: Streaming, Ratings, and the Changing Market - The Daily Downforce

There are very few things in NASCAR that strike a nerve like TV viewership and TV ratings. TV ratings are everything, but, the TV landscape is also changing. Streaming is starting to gain traction in the modern sports media market, but, how can fans interpret all of these numbers and terms in...
dailydownforce.com dailydownforce.com

I like Jon Lewis aka Pat Paulson and I thought he did a good job explaining why broadcast ratings are not as important as some seem to think.
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"Engagement" is the only metric that matters now.
 
My bush league cable company Cimtel LLC, wrote me a letter informing me they are going out of business and referred me to a streaming service My Bundle TV. Cox Communications is out here bringing high speed to the rural areas in conjunction with rural electric coop, under the Infrastructure grant and they are the big dog in the Tulsa area. I signed up to their newsletter about it and IF they come around soon I am going to go with them, but I'm not optimistic if or when that is going to happen, so streaming or nothing it looks like.
 
Perspective: The World Series between the Rangers and Diamondbacks is on pace to be the lowest rated in history - by a lot.

NASCAR's playoff ratings would still be down this year, but they wouldn't be down 13% or whatever the last race was if Chase Elliott made the grid.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Perspective: The World Series between the Rangers and Diamondbacks is on pace to be the lowest rated in history - by a lot.

NASCAR's playoff ratings would still be down this year, but they wouldn't be down 13% or whatever the last race was if Chase Elliott made the grid.
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I think it’s safe to say baseball is a very strong regional/local sport these days, but there really aren’t more than a handful of teams that resonate nationally. And that list definitely does not include Texas and Arizona (at least the Rangers were in contention all season, but it’s pretty funny that this new playoff format resulted in Arizona, a mediocre 6 seed no one cared about all year making the World Series, and it reflected how you would expect in the ratings).

I’m pretty sure MLB is the only one of the Big 4 sports that makes more money from RSN deals than national TV deals, and it just came out that ESPN has an out clause in their deal after 2025. It’s in a not so dissimilar position where national interest has been declining since the mid-2000’s, and I think they also stand a smaller chance of slowing the slide.
 
Fox said they need NASCAR?

And thus NASCAR has all the leverage in negotiations here. They can easily demand all Cup races on Sundays start at 1PM in the case of Fox anyway and demand some broadcast quality improvements.

Reality is Fox needs NASCAR far more than NASCAR needs Fox, and NASCAR needs to stress that in negotiations
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think it’s safe to say baseball is a very strong regional/local sport these days, but there really aren’t more than a handful of teams that resonate nationally. And that list definitely does not include Texas and Arizona (at least the Rangers were in contention all season, but it’s pretty funny that this new playoff format resulted in Arizona, a mediocre 6 seed no one cared about all year making the World Series, and it reflected how you would expect in the ratings).

I’m pretty sure MLB is the only one of the Big 4 sports that makes more money from RSN deals than national TV deals, and it just came out that ESPN has an out clause in their deal after 2025. It’s in a not so dissimilar position where national interest has been declining since the mid-2000’s, and I think they also stand a smaller chance of slowing the slide.
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It’s why the RSN model needs to be done in. We all want to chase the money, but it’s fragmented the viewership and in turn the fan base. NASCAR and golf are really in a good spot as they’re entirely carried by networks which is good for the future. NASCAR‘s greatest hurdle is race length in my opinion, the world really has trended to a point where 2.5 hours is the limit on watching a sporting event. Even football has trended closer to 3:15 now
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think it’s safe to say baseball is a very strong regional/local sport these days, but there really aren’t more than a handful of teams that resonate nationally. And that list definitely does not include Texas and Arizona (at least the Rangers were in contention all season, but it’s pretty funny that this new playoff format resulted in Arizona, a mediocre 6 seed no one cared about all year making the World Series, and it reflected how you would expect in the ratings).

I’m pretty sure MLB is the only one of the Big 4 sports that makes more money from RSN deals than national TV deals, and it just came out that ESPN has an out clause in their deal after 2025. It’s in a not so dissimilar position where national interest has been declining since the mid-2000’s, and I think they also stand a smaller chance of slowing the slide.
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As an aside I hate that they let so many teams in the mlb playoffs now, really makes 162 games pointless. They reap what they sowed with the ratings this year.
 
The Nature Boy said:
It's also why baseball is a hard sport to sell nationally. I hate watching national broadcasts where my team is playing. I want the broadcasters that I get for 150+ games per year.
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National Broadcasters are a huge weakness in MLB right now
 
Mispeedway15 said:
It’s why the RSN model needs to be done in. We all want to chase the money, but it’s fragmented the viewership and in turn the fan base. NASCAR and golf are really in a good spot as they’re entirely carried by networks which is good for the future. NASCAR‘s greatest hurdle is race length in my opinion, the world really has trended to a point where 2.5 hours is the limit on watching a sporting event. Even football has trended closer to 3:15 now
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Race length is fine IMO. I’d say the typical race is right around 3 hours, which is on par with the NFL. College games trend longer, even after shortening them this year. I guess you could point to hockey and basketball and say 2.5 is the sweet spot but I don’t think that would really enhance the sport at all. A lot of these races already don’t see green flag pit stops with a pretty short first couple of stages.

The RSN model is kind of a mess right now but most teams were still up locally while national viewership was down a few percentage points, and you can attribute a lot of that to the Yankees and Red Sox being horrible. But I do think you’re also asking a lot of the casual fan at the national level, trying to keep them engaged for the full season when the difference between the 104-win Braves and 84-win Diamondbacks is pretty much nothing one week into October.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think it’s safe to say baseball is a very strong regional/local sport these days, but there really aren’t more than a handful of teams that resonate nationally. And that list definitely does not include Texas and Arizona (at least the Rangers were in contention all season, but it’s pretty funny that this new playoff format resulted in Arizona, a mediocre 6 seed no one cared about all year making the World Series, and it reflected how you would expect in the ratings).

I’m pretty sure MLB is the only one of the Big 4 sports that makes more money from RSN deals than national TV deals, and it just came out that ESPN has an out clause in their deal after 2025. It’s in a not so dissimilar position where national interest has been declining since the mid-2000’s, and I think they also stand a smaller chance of slowing the slide.
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Regional sports networks are about dead. Sinclair is accelerating the process too.

The MLB wants to blow it all up and they will.

Although, I'd pause before going all in on streaming. People are fed up with this stuff.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Race length is fine IMO. I’d say the typical race is right around 3 hours, which is on par with the NFL. College games trend longer, even after shortening them this year. I guess you could point to hockey and basketball and say 2.5 is the sweet spot but I don’t think that would really enhance the sport at all. A lot of these races already don’t see green flag pit stops with a pretty short first couple of stages.

The RSN model is kind of a mess right now but most teams were still up locally while national viewership was down a few percentage points, and you can attribute a lot of that to the Yankees and Red Sox being horrible. But I do think you’re also asking a lot of the casual fan at the national level, trying to keep them engaged for the full season when the difference between the 104-win Braves and 84-win Diamondbacks is pretty much nothing one week into October.
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Baseball is also a hard sport to follow nationally. Your team already has 162 games. It's hard to keep up with every other team, which also has 162 games. Most people follow their team and maybe a couple of division rivals. It's not like football where every team only has 17 games.

Phoenix is a market without a deep baseball history and Dallas is a football market. It was probably the worst possible outcome for MLB.
 
MLB's blackout rules are absurd. I pay for MLB TV, yet I can't watch any Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh games on it because I live in Columbus. Even when the RSN's were available on most cable/streaming offerings, I still couldn't get Fox/Bally Pittsburgh, so why the hell are the Pirates blacked out? If I can't get the channel, they aren't in my market....but nope, too bad, it's still a blackout for me. Dumb dumb dumb.

Bally/Sinclair is absolute garbage, and trying to watch anything on their POS app is a waste of time. Bankruptcy isn't a harsh enough punishment for being such a trash company. They deserve worse IMO.

In summary, screw whoever's greed forced the RSNs away from most suppliers, screw whoever determines the blackout rules, and screw Bally's streaming app. They can all go to hell.
 
2 Sweet said:
I can't watch any Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh games on it because I live in Columbus. Even when the RSN's were available on most cable/streaming offerings, I still couldn't get Fox/Bally Pittsburgh, so why the hell are the Pirates blacked out?
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So you'll go to the games, silly! TV cuts into attendance, don't you know? If you can afford cable, you can afford to attend 81 games a year at each of three stadiums.
 
Championship weekend

Cup - 2.92M (3.213M)
Xfinity - 951k (995k)
Truck - 415k (408k)

F1 Brazil - 909k

Xfinity finished up for the full season at around 1.016M (997k). Kinda interesting to me that, season opener at Daytona aside, the NBC portion of the season did better than FOX’s.
 
2 Sweet said:
MLB's blackout rules are absurd. I pay for MLB TV, yet I can't watch any Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh games on it because I live in Columbus. Even when the RSN's were available on most cable/streaming offerings, I still couldn't get Fox/Bally Pittsburgh, so why the hell are the Pirates blacked out? If I can't get the channel, they aren't in my market....but nope, too bad, it's still a blackout for me. Dumb dumb dumb.

Bally/Sinclair is absolute garbage, and trying to watch anything on their POS app is a waste of time. Bankruptcy isn't a harsh enough punishment for being such a trash company. They deserve worse IMO.

In summary, screw whoever's greed forced the RSNs away from most suppliers, screw whoever determines the blackout rules, and screw Bally's streaming app. They can all go to hell.
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Try being a baseball fan in North Carolina.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Xfinity finished up for the full season at around 1.016M (997k). Kinda interesting to me that, season opener at Daytona aside, the NBC portion of the season did better than FOX’s.
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NBC did get a boost from the Chicago Street Race. Their coverage is also phenomenal. They inform and educate, while having an energy level that makes their broadcast booth entertaining. Their graphics are top-notch. They also know when to play with their toys. They try new things, like the radio broadcast, but don't ever go overboard. All in all, their coverage flows REALLY well and makes watching a NASCAR race an enjoyable experience.

Fox's coverage is the exact opposite. They have too many toys and they're going to play with all of them during a race broadcast, no matter how much it interrupts the flow. Same with pre-recorded segments, and things like "20 To Go," "Ones To Watch," and these ridiculous, drawn-out in-race interviews. Their overall presentation looks like a cartoon compared to the serious, professional presentation from NBC Sports. Hell, they LITERALLY USE CARTOONS!

NBC's commentators can be over the top sometimes, but, at their worst, NBC is still much better than Fox.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Championship weekend

Cup - 2.92M (3.213M)
Xfinity - 951k (995k)
Truck - 415k (408k)

F1 Brazil - 909k

Xfinity finished up for the full season at around 1.016M (997k). Kinda interesting to me that, season opener at Daytona aside, the NBC portion of the season did better than FOX’s.
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I believe they said something about weather in the first part of the season.
 
AlTerego said:
Yes! At NBC every point matters and everything has playoff implications 😁
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And "playoffs" are going to be the primary talking point during NFL games over the next two months. Every win/loss affects seeding, or Wild Card positioning. Who's going to get home field advantage? Who's going to get the first round bye? If the playoffs ended right now, here's who would be playing who.
 
2 Sweet said:
I gotta ask....what teams are a blackout for you?

The answer SHOULD be zero, but sadly I'm sure it's not.
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Every square inch of the US is blacked out for someone. Even Hawaii has blackouts.

It’s driven by the RSNs. If MLB could, they would funnel people to their own service.
 
StandOnIt said:
I believe they said something about weather in the first part of the season.
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It’s independent of rainouts/postponements. Xfinity races on USA were able to hit 900k viewers more often than they were on FS1.

Didn’t include any of the races that got pushed in the figures, like Fontana and spring Charlotte getting delayed to FS2.
 
FLRacingFan said:
It’s independent of rainouts/postponements. Xfinity races on USA were able to hit 900k viewers more often than they were on FS1.

Didn’t include any of the races that got pushed in the figures, like Fontana and spring Charlotte getting delayed to FS2.
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sure it does.
 
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