Its not often noticed, but it was definitely noticed by Jeff Gordon fans: had NASCAR not implemented the Chase, the driver of the iconic #24 could have been the one standing aside Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty today with seven titles, instead of his protg Jimmie Johnson. But more importantly, the racing isnt anywhere near as exciting at the cookie cutters, as I so eloquently explained here. The 2016 race from Homestead had 6.1 million viewers, the 2015 race had 7.643 million. Fox reported a modest 2% increase in viewership of comparable Cup race from 2018 to 2019, but it needs to be noted that Foxs part of the schedule does not collide with NFL and college football, which NASCAR fans also enjoy watching. So if Im right, in a few years NASCAR may become Americas summer sport again. So to the extent that you can be flat or even up a couple of points it says a lot just about fan interest in the sport.. From F1, Rally, Le Mans, Drifting, or Touring Car championships that are broadcast on TV or via the internet, viewers now have even more access to alternative motorsports events that can offer the same level of adrenaline fueled excitement that NASCAR can provide. And you hear more and more about this today. As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. Many fans, especially those who might want to disparage the sport, dont understand that just because the TV numbers are down or not at the sky-high levels they once were, doesnt mean NASCAR is facing any sort of loss of popularity. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. And the same is true for NASCAR. I dont need to tell anyone who was a fan in the 2000s this, but NASCARs broadcasts at the time may have been the worst in the history of sports. NBC said its season viewership averages of 18 Cup races in 2019 (except for weather-affected races at Daytona and Darlington) was 2.57 million, the same as in 2018. over the same Cup Series stops last season, Ratings: NASCAR, college hoops, soccer, NHL, XFL sees big drop in Week 2, but on par with last years USFL, LeBron injury ill-timed as Lakers continue to draw, Small sampling for LIV; PGA Tour wins head-to-head in rout. Basicallythe first 2 races of 2015 have already soundly beaten the first 4 races of 2012 by 4.7 million viewers. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. So 16% drop in terms of total TV consumption of those TVs that are actually tuned in over the last two years, NASCAR shares up 18%. Which is any sports property, essentially professional sports league, that is about a million viewers or higher on a per event basis or the most stable property in terms of viewership over the course of the last two years, it's possible that we'll be able to be the most stable tier one sports property in terms of sports viewership over the course of those three years, (though) the NFL is off to a very good start. The disappointing ratings continue a downward trend in Daytona 500 viewership, which has been steadily declining since Fox scored 18.7 million viewers in 2005 with a household rating of 10.9 . NASCAR looks beyond declining attendance, TV ratings They were even more upset when NASCAR changed its playoff system in January 2014 to create a winner-take-all race among four drivers in. But the initial Chase, an artificial and contrived points reset, was despised by fans. Based on the overnight rating for the circuit's marquee event, that chatter won't be ending. NASCAR's social media channels have piled up nearly 2 billion social impressions (the number of times its content was viewed) and more than 92 million fan engagements (retweets, likes, shares). NASCAR needs side-by-side commercials during green-flag racing and then full-screen commercials during yellow flags. I also suggested a solutionthat NASCAR emulate how baseball exploded in popularity after the opening of Camden Yards. And the season will conclude at Phoenix again, a more exciting venue than Miami where the finale had been for years. Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.9]. It may seem good on the surface, but theres more beneath that makes this concerning. You can contact him here or on the Sports Media Watch Twitter page. With fewer fans at the track, you might think TV ratings would continue to rise and maybe even increase as those fans turned on the TV instead of spending money to go to the track. As streaming services provide instant entertainment whileNASCARhas scheduled andlengthy race events,thecomparison is similar toordering drive-thru (cheap and convenient) versusdining at a fine restaurant (pricier and takes longer before you can eat). Advertising and sponsorship deals are the lifeblood of spectator sports, that is why the TV spots for the Superbowl are some of the most expensive in television. So that's a positive viewership increase of 2%. On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. Dr. Jon Lewis (aka Paulsen) has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? The various platforms of social media have been a convenient and fast way to obtain information and entertainment on a particular sporting event. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. . The drops: 10% in one year, 19% in two years, 38% in three years, and, good golly Miss Molly, 51% since 2015, when NBC picked up the second half of the season in a giant 10-year contract, with Fox doing the first half. In todays media world they are now just a small part of what is used to measure the popularity of the sport. Where . Bookmark this page for NASCAR ratings as another year of racing is officially underway! or Disney plus; there's more competition for those eyeballs then there's ever been. Schedule/Results. The #48 team should have been a gold mine. HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota along with his wife [+] Samantha and son Brexton pose with the trophy after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. In fact, the current car lends itself to some pretty good racing. NBC reported Monday that its broadcast of the NASCAR Cup championship race from Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida drew an average of 3.759 million viewers, its best audience for its half of the season. Photo credit: eliduke on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA The truth was of course far from that. Far from it. Even though the Confederate battle flag was banned within Talledega Speedway on Sunday, outside the track, the initials "PC" stood for "publicly Confederate.". Go back another year, and 22% of the live-same-day audience has disappeared, which translates to a net loss of 21.3 million TV viewers per night. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. According to reports, the league saw a sharp 50% decline in viewership from week one to the next week.The 3.0 reboot is not going well. winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. NASCAR is clearly falling behind other motorsports in a new era of television. Or Jeff Gordon, again, living in a Manhattan penthouse with his second wife, a model, instead of in North Carolina, where he lived beside a lake with his first wife, a deeply religious woman who was Born Again. I cant imagine any fan of Dale Earnhardt Sr.and there were a lot of themnot wanting to see the sport take every measure it could to keep drivers safe after Daytona 2001. Ill never forget seeing Elliott Sadlers terrifying end-over-end crash at Talladega in 2003 and seeing it again in every single ad for Talladega races for the next 3-4 years. Yes, you had to be able to prove that you knew what you were doing out there but if your car passed technical inspection and you could either qualify to race through time trials or qualifying races, you were in. Its certainly healthy in terms of eyeballs, Hebrst said. The above car is a NASCAR entry that is supposed to look like a Toyota Supra. News. You will find all of your NASCAR ratings coverage at Sportsnaut. Which might explain why, despite the denials, the people who are descendants of Big Bill France, the man who started it all, are quietly shopping the company around and hoping to get out while the goings good. Men in particular were more put. The NASCAR ratings for the 2022 season are the best they have been in four years. 4 million viewers in. Now, NASCAR might say, Well, 3.759 million for a race in November, even if it is half as much as four years ago, is more than 0.000 viewers for no race. And ratings are slightly better overall when you include the Fox half, which is better than another plunge, as in 2018. All Rights Reserved. Q: You say NASCAR continues to grow and like you, . That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. Danica Patrick just retired. On Monday, the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. Compared to the last time the Brickyard 400 was run in July (the 2017 race), Sunday's ratings were down 21 percent and viewership was off 23 percent. OTHER VIEWS? NASCARs initial playoff brainchild was hugely unpopular, and every griping fan in comment sections of blogs everywhere had the artificial points reset near the top of their list of complaints. Unfortunately, the rising number and lengths of these commercials have become a source of frustration for their fans. The playoff system eliminates 25 or more drivers from contention with nearly a third of the season still to go. That isnt insignificant when it comes to explaining the decline of NASCAR. At the start of the 21st Century NASCAR TV ratings, meant everything. But it's an uphill fight for us and a lot of other sports properties. For the first time this season, NASCAR was not the top sporting event of the weekend, trailing the NBA All-Star Game on TNT and TBS (3.1, 5.94M). Top Ten motorsport stories: Abu Dhabi, Larson, COVID 2022 Land Rover Range Rover looks gorgeous, The government of Canada is harassing its citizens, William Davis: a Liberal in Conservative clothing, Trying to create a story where there is no story, Dubas will dump Tavares to make Rielly captain, Canadian racings crown jewel, Jukasa Motor (nee Cayuga) Speedway is closed down, I have my critics but Page, McReynolds top the list, What my grandchildren think Santa would drive (if he had a car), The markets shifting to EVs and that explains Fords flip-flop, Lets use public embarrassment as a way to curb drinking and driving. It was during this timethat "Bootleggers"- those whoproduce anddeliver prohibited whiskey/alcohol also had modified delivery cars that were fast enough to be able to evade, outrun and escape law enforcement should they be spotted. It was blatant condescension towards what was arguably the most loyal fanbase in sports. The 2023 NASCAR season is underway and it is bound to be very exciting in the second year of the NextGen car. Las Vegas, by contrast, moved back from the coveted week after the Daytona 500. If they hadnt, youd probably be reading articles today about the decline of Coca-Cola too. Next years championship race will be held in Phoenix, and even though the 2020 race should draw a packed house of 42,000, or 7,000 more than the estimated crowd at Homestead, fans have said they dont like the racing at Phoenix as much. Not all, of course, but most. It took quite a few years of longtime fans bitching about that, but NASCAR did finally move the Labor Day Southern 500 back to Darlington. Racing, like basketball and other sports, has seen year-to-year ratings decline. You can contact him here or on the Sports Media Watch Twitter page. I expect that will be a boon to NASCARs future. Or NASCAR could pretty much keep things the way they are and hope to hold on to whoever watches through 2024, when the massive TV contract expires. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . NASCAR ratings have been on the decline over the last decade as they have taken a significant drop. If it did, I would really appreciate your support. Yes, a team can still dominate all season and lose a championship to a flat tire, but at least its not just an artificial points reset. The Great Recession that swept across the landscape starting in 2008 changed everything. (It wasnt a tough call to make, if you actually looked at her results instead of her figure.). The one thing, though, that all those racing drivers had in common Petty, Pearson, Parsons, Bodine, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Wallace and the rest is that they all started racing on local tracks and created reputations for themselves as hard chargers who were winners. No longer will teams win titles by dominating speedways; driver skill will be more of a factor, as it should be. No longer could a late-model driver from Syracuse or Spokane get a car and a team together and show up to try to qualify for any of NASCARs races. The Xfinity Series at Indianapolis had a rating of 0.67, with 1.249 million viewers, totaling more than F1 Pocono TV Ratings July 26, 2022 In the late '90s and the early 2000s, NASCAR saw an unprecedented growth in popularity and TV ratings. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. It could be just Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon up in the booth, which would sound like a library compared to NBC.). The broadcasts have also improved. A shot that shows the overall value sponsors receive. Stats. Schedule/Results. The Patriots domination was great for the NFL. This is a BETA experience. The decline of NASCAR was a combination of ill-considered decisions: the implementation of a contrived playoff, poorly thought out broadcasting contracts, and departing from unique and venerable venues for dull, unexciting ones. The presidential and general elections, which need to be held no later than June 18, come at a tough time for Erdogan who has seen a decline in his ratings because of skyrocketing inflation. NHL regular season ratings were down 12% this year. The season averaged 2.866 million sans-Daytona, down 1% from last year (2.91M) and a fraction of a percent from 19 (2.871M). Those numbers of course, dont tell the entire story. Admittedly, several of these rule changes have been beneficial to the sport, but some have unfortunately come across as marketing stunts that have turned away fans. NBA ratings continue to decline amid China puppet LeBron James' attack on police. I dont often see NASCARs ill-conceived playoff idea as a reason people cite for the decline of NASCAR in articles I read these days, but I promise you, that was not the case when I covered the sport. When NASCAR first started, you had a bunch of good ol boys who worked blue-collar jobs, usually in garages, and gottheir hands dirty and went racing at local speedways on the weekend and, if they were any good, developed a following. In 1994, there were six events held at intermediate tracks of 1.5-2 miles in length. Last years Xfinity race at the track aired on FS2 and had a 0.21 and 341,000. While this already marks the third time that NASCAR has seen the average viewership go down, there is one major positive to take away from it. The news sort of heads downhill from there. It didnt help that a hugely popular driver underperformed, but that shouldnt have caused this much of a free fall. Kyle Busch, NASCARs black hat, won his second title. However, the second race of the 2022 season saw a more significant drop in viewership compared to previous seasons. Photo credit: brandonzeman on Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA Thats exactly what NASCAR did when they took the Labor Day race out of Darlington and sent it to Auto Club Speedway in California. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. Stats. What we try to do is boil it down to more simple sound bites that are A: true and B: accurate, Hebrst said. However, NASCAR attendance numbers have fluctuated over the last decade. But for whatever reason, Junior not only didnt measure up to his fathers formidable reputation, he rarely even established himself as a contender. Looking back over the 2021 season to date in NASCARs top tier Cup series 12 of the 32 races had ratings that were higher over last year and had more viewers; that included a six race stretch leading up to Talladega that saw a consecutive increase in viewership each week. Our share of those TVs that are tuned in is up 18%. Next:10 NASCAR Drivers With The Most Wins (& How Much They Won). NASCAR's meteoric rise was fed by the rise of Jeff Gordon, whom many consider to be NASCAR's first superstar, and the death of legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. What other big American sport has ongoing action behind a commercial? NFLX NASCARs 2020 champion is also its most popular driverfor the first time since 1988. I wasnt the only one who noticedas this blog posts comments demonstrated. He said its important to look at the bigger picture, a bigger picture that shows how media is consumed. . Chase Elliott, like his 1988 champion father Bill, is from Dawsonville, Georgiathe Southeastand he has the lineage factor as the son of a well-liked champion. You may opt-out by. Im not buying the its too safe bit as a cause for the decline of NASCAR. Once upon a time, if the Cup series had a weekend off, drivers like Earnhardt Sr. and/or Earnhardt Jr. would go to Disney World and drink beer with NASCAR fans they bumped into in the lineup for A Small World. Please email the author at nmcdonald@thestar.ca, Copyright 2023 | Powered by CityMediaInc.com, Happy Birthday, GM Canada, and thanks for the (many) ride(s), Racing Roundup: Great Grand Prix in Austin, despite actions by stewards; Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame induction video; Alonso wont drive in IndyCar in 2019 or ever. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. This isnt to say that the initial Car of Tomorrow wasnt a disasterit wasbut at the time, fans were plenty vocal about safety after the loss of the sports biggest icon. You could say it was NASCARs New Coke, except Coca-Cola was smart enough to change the formula back in response to furious customer backlash. . 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It was blatant condescension towards what was arguably the most loyal fanbase in.! 0.7 and 1.28 million the 2023 NASCAR season is underway and it is bound to be very exciting the! Coveted Week after the opening of Camden Yards media have been in four years back from the race. Some thought put into it continues to grow and like you, of 2012 4.7! From 2014. results instead of her figure. ) the popularity of the 21st Century NASCAR TV ratings, everything! Gain as season posts modest drop of Coca-Cola too NASCAR drivers with the most loyal fanbase in.! Continues to grow and like you, for those eyeballs then there 's ever been in other action! Images & Archives via Getty Images ), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images landscape... Find all of your NASCAR ratings as another year of racing is underway! ( Households Using television ) levels, he said black hat, won his second title but theres nascar ratings decline that. 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