The Announcers Thread

The price increases are on my nerves. Now we're seeing the streaming companies saying the next round of price hikes will probably be massive.
DirecTV notified us we'll see an increase soon. I don't think this one is supposed to be bad. But we'll see.
 
DirecTV notified us we'll see an increase soon. I don't think this one is supposed to be bad. But we'll see.
It’s not the providers doing this though. It’s the stations.

They have their streaming services and look how much those keep going up. Some of them have more than doubled in price in the last two years and now the chatter is massive price hikes are coming.

These things aren’t profitable and we just need to go back to cable tv.
 
The Bristol race only drew 1.5 million viewers, down 300k from last year. The crowd was down too. I think the September date is hurting the race, not to mention a couple of lackluster races there.
 
Ratings continue to slide downward as the season goes along.



Sadly, I think ratings would be worse without the playoffs.

And NBC really needs to put these races on Peacock. Comcast is transitioning away from cable TV but NBC keeps these races on ****** Versant's USA.
 
I'd like to see survey data that supports or refutes that.

Survey data, if it existed, would be so unreliable.

I imagine NBC has a lot of internal data when they're pushing back against eliminating the playoffs. In 2013, ESPN only wanted to keep the playoffs and nothing else before NBC ultimately outbid them.
 
Sadly, I think ratings would be worse without the playoffs.

And NBC really needs to put these races on Peacock. Comcast is transitioning away from cable TV but NBC keeps these races on ****** Versant's USA.

Or put them on NBC. Regardless I think they’ve probably screwed up the postseason everything a bit. 16 of 36 full time drivers is too much to build interest in “making it” and a 10 race chase of a 36 race schedule is a bit too much. Drop it down to 8-10 in the postseason and 5 races of a playoff. That’d build quite a bit more excitement.
 
Or put them on NBC. Regardless I think they’ve probably screwed up the postseason everything a bit. 16 of 36 full time drivers is too much to build interest in “making it” and a 10 race chase of a 36 race schedule is a bit too much. Drop it down to 8-10 in the postseason and 5 races of a playoff. That’d build quite a bit more excitement.
But they want those to go against football, which is why there are 10.
 
Or put them on NBC. Regardless I think they’ve probably screwed up the postseason everything a bit. 16 of 36 full time drivers is too much to build interest in “making it” and a 10 race chase of a 36 race schedule is a bit too much. Drop it down to 8-10 in the postseason and 5 races of a playoff. That’d build quite a bit more excitement.
The three linear TV partners that bought into NASCAR did so to prop up cable when it’s being abandoned. And NASCAR took the bag.

Truthfully, NASCAR should’ve gone all in with Amazon and Nexstar (CW).

The other thing we have to take into account with the ratings drop is, we have no idea how many people are watching from their pirate ships.

Internet piracy has exploded this year because the price increases from cable and streaming and the content purging from streamers has pissed everyone off. @StandOnIt shared a great video last week about it.
 
Another down week for NASCAR Cup Series.



MLB sees ratings increases because they have starpower in Shohei Othani, Aaron Judge, and Paul Skenes, among others.

WNBA sees ratings increases because they have starpower in Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers, among others.

F1 has starpower in Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, among others.

NASCAR's "superstar" is ... Chase Elliott, who is so boring, he makes Jimmie Johnson look like "Hollywood" Tim Richmond. And despite his status as the most popular driver, Bubba Wallace is probably the only name a casual sports fan knows.

Another problem is that nobody has a defining paint scheme anymore. Earnhardt had his iconic black car. Ricky Rudd had the Tide ride. Jeff Gordon had the rainbow car, then the flames. Mark Martin had the red/white/blue paint scheme. Now, the paint schemes are different every single week.

IMO, drivers not having a definitive paint scheme or definitive colors is a huge problem. You KNOW who the Dallas Cowboys are from their helmets. You know who the New York Yankees are from the pinstripes. You know who the Los Angeles Lakers are. Kyle Larson, Josh Berry and Joey Logano are the only cars that have a definitive paint scheme most races.

Also, the deal was signed with NBC, not VERSANT. Get these races off USA.
 
MLB sees ratings increases because they have starpower in Shohei Othani, Aaron Judge, and Paul Skenes, among others.

WNBA sees ratings increases because they have starpower in Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers, among others.

F1 has starpower in Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, among others.

NASCAR's "superstar" is ... Chase Elliott, who is so boring, he makes Jimmie Johnson look like "Hollywood" Tim Richmond. And despite his status as the most popular driver, Bubba Wallace is probably the only name a casual sports fan knows.

Another problem is that nobody has a defining paint scheme anymore. Earnhardt had his iconic black car. Ricky Rudd had the Tide ride. Jeff Gordon had the rainbow car, then the flames. Mark Martin had the red/white/blue paint scheme. Now, the paint schemes are different every single week.

IMO, drivers not having a definitive paint scheme or definitive colors is a huge problem. You KNOW who the Dallas Cowboys are from their helmets. You know who the New York Yankees are from the pinstripes. You know who the Los Angeles Lakers are. Kyle Larson, Josh Berry and Joey Logano are the only cars that have a definitive paint scheme most races.

Also, the deal was signed with NBC, not VERSANT. Get these races off USA.
All good points, especially the Chase Elliott boring comment. I was near him at one of the dirt late model races at Bristol and he was just there. Talked some, not a lot. Didn't kid around. Seems like all he wants to do is drive a race car and not much else, maybe fishing or something else low-key.
 
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