nascar viewership by year nascar viewership by year

From an ad sales perspective: Ad Sales for Fox completely sold out every single ad unit on big Fox or FS1 throughout all of 2021. Hes tasked with not only getting exposure for the sport but measuring that exposure and translating in a way that shows value to stakeholders. However, NASCAR has been taking major strides as the on-track product is improving, the schedule is being changed, bold decisions are being made, and communication between each party is better. Up until the middle of the 21st century the measured pairs of eyeballs watching NASCAR on TV were counted, analyzed and, for the most part, cheered. This is a BETA experience. In fact, the sport will have tremendous momentum going into next season after its playoff numbers did pretty well compared to previous years. Upon further review, however, the country's most popular racing series has a reason to be concerned. Brad Paisley joined the NBC Sports crew during NASCARs visit to Nashville Superspeedway. So we are spending a lot of time right now talking to and gathering feedback from our industry, the teams, the tracks and others so that we are as prepared as possible for that discussion in 2023. They are now just one part of a bigger picture: one pixel of a screenshot. To the extent that the platform penetration levels change or the trajectory of those platforms changes between now and then, thats something that we would take a look at. Read more Has either Fox or NBC indicated that theyre interested in re-upping? While Nielsen was undergoing its transformation other smaller agencies stepped into fill the void. 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Both Fox and NBC have shown that they will bring the stars of yesterday into the booth today and they will invest where they need to invest to have the star power of our sport. Compared to 2019s finale from Homestead, ratings were down 13 percent (from a 2.2 rating) and viewership down 14 percent (from 3.74 million). Viewership of live sports in the U.S. 2021-2025 Viewership of live sports in the U.S. 2021-2025 Number and share of live sports viewers in the United States from 2021 to 2025 Digital live. This Talladega tv rating doesnt add up FOX has been averaging -500,000 viewers for all of their races this year Theres no way the Talladega viewership couldve increased over 2022, when NASCAR was actually seeing slight increases. Looking at the change of viewership from a 1 oclock start time to a 3 oclock start, it seems almost silly not to cater to that audience where you have a bigger opportunity for growth. Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Speedway was also the most-watched event of the weekend on March 6 with a viewership of 4.544 million and a rating of 2.71 million. However, based on the total viewership above, the 2022 season appears to be showing signs of NASCAR going in the right direction. Home Daytona 500 ratings history (1979-present). I do think its fair to think about a race length that was typically 500 miles and are we holding the attention span of a younger demo before a 500-mile race. Statista. Every single playoff stretch since the 2014 season has seen a decrease in viewership. [Online]. (Just in case you were wondering, Fox is unlikely to name a replacement for Darrell Waltrip if he is replaced, that is though we should find out more next month. Currently, you are using a shared account. I think race lengths is one of those topics that we do discuss internally and well take a hard look at that just like we do everything. These numbers were slightly lower compared to the 2019 Daytona 500, where they recorded a viewership of 9.17 million. Overview and forecasts on trending topics, Industry and market insights and forecasts, Key figures and rankings about companies and products, Consumer and brand insights and preferences in various industries, Detailed information about political and social topics, All key figures about countries and regions, Market forecast and expert KPIs for 600+ segments in 150+ countries, Insights on consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide, Business information on 70m+ public and private companies, Detailed information for 35,000+ online stores and marketplaces. FILE - Chase Elliott (9) looks on prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022, in Concord, N.C. The sport has seen two major boosts for the 2022 season. * Asterisk indicates race was postponed to Monday. All of these numbers are the raw total from each rating release throughout the season. data than referenced in the text. Viewership has been down for each and every one of NASCAR's events prior to Sunday's race and over the last five races, those numbers have been significantly lower with each of them 12% or. UPDATE: Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix scored a 2.8 rating and 4.6 million viewers on FOX, down 15% in ratings and viewership from last year (3.3, 5.4M), down 30% and 31% respectively from . So that's household using televisions. As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic. It's peak viewership was 10.1 million viewers. I have been around and covered NASCAR for over two decades. Ill tell you ratings: We would do about 0.9 to a 1.0 to a 1.1 for midweek races (on cable) on a Wednesday, and theres a lot of stress on the industry to do that Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday model. The fan base that is paying attention to our sport now than probably two or three years agopart of that is the economic model of our sport is a little bit more sounder, on solid footing; the introduction to the Next Gen car, it brings on new owners like Justin Marks and Michael Jordan, Pitbull et cetera. or Disney plus; there's more competition for those eyeballs then there's ever been. Because that race is so large from a viewership perspective, youre talking about nine million viewers. Average viewership of the NASCAR Cup Series in the United States from 2014 to 2022 (in million viewers) [Graph]. Another change for 2022 is that there are going to be more races on network TV, and on the NBC side races on cable are shifting from NBCSN to USA Network, which is in more homes than NBCSN (NBCSN is shutting down at the end of 2021). 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. Cup Series racing finished with its third consecutive year of share growth, up 14 percent since 2018 and up 8 percent over the 2020 season. (Keep in mind last year's audience was originally reported as 4.68 million, but NASCAR said Tuesday that the year-ago figure was later revised downward.) So there is a direct correlation between our viewership trends and the advertising revenue that is attributed to our property. The last TV deal NASCAR negotiated in 2013 was a record television deal for NASCAR. The season ended with two flat tires. It was not a great race. Sundays NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.55 million viewers on FOX, flat in ratings and up 5% in viewership from last year (2.6, 4.34M). Steve Phelps, NASCARs president, had an interesting comment when he spoke to reporters, saying that NASCAR is the most stable sports property on television since 2018. He is a veteran sports reporter, having covered the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, college basketball, college football, NASCAR, IndyCar and sports business for several outlets. We have a really good relationship with both Fox and NBC. The victory was Truex's first in the . You hear often it should be around three hours. After years of decreasing numbers, a boost in viewership is very positive. From the Aug. 22 Michigan race to Sept. 26s Las Vegas playoff race, Cup Series races saw six consecutive weeks of year-over-year viewership increases, the longest streak since 2011. Learn more about how Statista can support your business. So even if were competing versus the NFL, we hold up pretty well. The belief is that maybe NASCARs partners dont always present the sport in the best light or maybe educate their viewers compared to some other motorsports forums. Sunday's race in Atlanta, the fifth of the Cup Series schedule, attracted 4.003 million viewers. NASCAR rose to prominence in the 1980s and 90s as TV became more and more involved. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. (Photo: David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images). Fair to say midweek races are probably an idea thats come and gone? Related: NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022. To use individual functions (e.g., mark statistics as favourites, set I can save this sport . Bristol Dirt, another tentpole event that we expected big things from in 2021 and expect big things in 2022, was also rain-impacted and pushed to Monday afternoon for a 4 p.m. I think that an answer that I would give you today in 2021 probably isnt going to hold up in terms of where the world is in 2023. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. From the Aug. 22 Michigan race to Sept. 26s Las Vegas playoff race, Cup Series races saw six consecutive weeks of year-over-year viewership increases, the longest streak since 2011. I feel like the season running from February to November is probably the right length of season for us, but its probably too early to tell if there could be any other changes going into the next rights cycle. The 2020 and 2021 Daytona 500 were rescheduled due to inconducive weather and they happened on Mondays. That metric is down 16% over the last 24 months. There is a lot of tradition in these race lengths. NASCAR sits on an upward trajectory for the first time in a while. Friday's NASCAR Truck Series race was also broadcast via FS1. Steve Phelps said, We are going to have our most successful year on TV, weather permitting, that weve had in a long, long time. Hes very bullish on 2022 and where he thinks the ratings are going to be. And the last one was Talladega (in October). Im spending a lot of time right now meeting with teams individually to walk them through this kind of tradeoff between total viewership and giving us the best chance for success from a consumption perspective, both in 2025 and whenever the next TV deal runs through. Brian Herbst is the senior vice president for media and productions for NASCAR. I think that you will see us take a hard look at race lengths over the course of the next two or three years. The only way to get out of the NFL season would be to do one of two things. You need at least a Starter Account to use this feature. Jordan Bianchi is a motorsports reporter for The Athletic. The fact that were as bullish as we are about our positioning in 2022 going into 2023, that is real. Not just from a financial perspective, but from what is the distribution sweet spot that makes the most sense for our industry and our fan base. NASCAR ranked as the first- or second-most viewed sport of the weekend 17 times. Overall, NASCAR brought in 114.231 million average viewers throughout the entire 2022 season which marks its best since the 2018 season (120.454 million average viewers). When the TV ratings came in, NASCAR looked to have lapped the field. Follow below for live results and highlights from this year's Wurth 400. NBC Sports' 2021 NASCAR Cup Series viewership across NBC and NBCSN produced a Total Audience Delivery of 2.562 million viewers, . This year's viewership will be the Daytona 500's worst since the start of data availability began in 1979, . But experts say the reasons are multitude. 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. Going against the NFL in the fall can be a tough proposition. In todays media world they are now just a small part of what is used to measure the popularity of the sport. Flat is better than down, but 2018 was also the year the once-mighty U.S.S. This might be why some other totals are different. This years Daytona 500, which was won by Austin Cindric, NASCAR averaged a total viewership of 8.9 million. 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.. Fans can also watch NASCAR races for free by signing up for a trial of fuboTV. Overview and forecasts on trending topics, Industry and market insights and forecasts, Key figures and rankings about companies and products, Consumer and brand insights and preferences in various industries, Detailed information about political and social topics, All key figures about countries and regions, Market forecast and expert KPIs for 600+ segments in 150+ countries, Insights on consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide, Business information on 70m+ public and private companies, Detailed information for 35,000+ online stores and marketplaces. NASCAR TV ratings were once the darlings of the sport. The next evolution in viewing habits is streaming. This. The ideal entry-level account for individual users. This statistic is not included in your account. Prior to 2019 ratings are also across NBC and NBCSN. Compared to all other sports, the curve is in on the uptrend, but on its own graph, the curve is on the downtrend. Does it make it more complicated that NASCAR is a sponsor-driven sport where its imperative to get those sponsors in front of people? This includes the total viewership, the percentage being up or down compared to last year, and extra information that can range from unfortunate circumstances for television coverage to the household share. For nearly every major sports league, television rights fees are its biggest revenue generators and the lifeblood needed to keep teams in the black. Find your information in our database containing over 20,000 reports. The NASCAR Cup Series rolls into the Mid-Atlantic to take on the Monster Mile on Sunday. But because were delivering 3 million viewers on a typical Sunday, and youre probably getting 50,000 to 60,000 people in the stands, the way we look at that is were simply trying to deliver our content and our product to the most amount of eyeballs possible. Just based on how competitive it is for time, attention, eyeballs, cord-cutting and just the macro changes that are happening in media broadly. When we go up against the NFL on a cable race, were usually in a 1.3 to 1.4-1.5 range. Show sources information The Chicago Street Course and North Wilkesboro Speedways return should really give even more attention to the sport. Coliseum and then well run the Daytona 500 the week after the Super Bowl. The rain-delayed 2021 Daytona 500 had a 2.8 rating and 4.83 million viewers, marking the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the race. (Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today), Fox Sports has increasingly brought in current drivers, like Erik Jones (right) to its broadcast booth and drivers-only broadcasts. The media landscape has evolved over the course of the last eight years. Lets take a deeper look at the data from the last five years. 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. The NASCAR ratings for the 2022 season are the best they have been in four years. April 29, 2023 at 3:55 PM. (The 2023 Martinsville audience was larger, but that was entirely due to last year's race being on a Saturday.) Are you interested in testing our business solutions? In the past NASCAR has tried to educate fans who might look at ratings and think the sport is in trouble and help them understand that things arent as bad as they seem. The fact is, NBC could bring Ken Squier and Gentleman Ned Jarrett back into the booth and call back the late, great Chris Economaki from Heaven to report from pit road, and it would still face the same big hurdle: selling a sport that is losing popularity and has three months of overlap with football. We could shorten the season in terms of the number of races, which would have an impact on industry sponsorship, economics, the number of dates the tracks get, and certainly the size of our TV deal. Lets take a look at the data more closely. "Average Viewership of The Nascar Cup Series in The United States from 2014 to 2022 (in Million Viewers). I dont think were ever content with where we are, but I think in the environment that were in, were really pleased with the stability of those numbers. TV ratings are no longer the end all be all for NASCAR. Accessed May 01, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/812557/average-us-tv-audience-nascar-cup-series/. Herbst spoke with The Athletic before the Cup Series championship finale at Phoenix Raceway about a number of topics: ratings, NASCARs relationship with Fox Sports and NBC Sports, future negotiations, whether a Cup Series race could exclusively be aired on a streaming platform, why NASCAR feels it is one of the most stable sports leagues on television and why its well-positioned to see a growth in viewership in 2022. A shot that shows the overall value sponsors receive. Additionally, FOX announced that the 2022 NASCAR Cup Season was the second most-streamed season all-time with an average minute audience of 35,714. NBC, we performed exceptionally well for them on the broadcast side, on the cable side; our OTT product, TrackPass, has doubled our expectations in 2020, tripled some expectations in 2021. Year-over-year viewership this season has been down every step of the way. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. 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NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season, NASCAR odds: Betting lines for each race and championship futures, NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022, NASCAR standings: Cup, Xfinity, and Truck points during the 2023 season, Reported number of 4.682 million was adjusted to 4.336 million for 2022, 2022 on Saturday night, 2023 on Sunday afternoon, 2022 on FOX, 2023 on FS1. 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%. We feel really good about the length of our season. Looking back, knowing that its probably best for NASCAR to be on a network channel as opposed to cable, is that a concession NASCAR would have made? The race was down 11.9% compared to the first Sunday race on FS1 last season, Share up 9%, largest for Race #2 since 2017, Share up 2%, largest for Daytona 500 since 2016, Second most-watched non-points race since 2016. So if you think about where we were in 2018, when we started to make a number of the systemic and seismic changes to the industry between bringing NASCAR and ISC together and SMI going private, I think if you think about where we were in 2018 following a wave of driver retirements Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Jr. that certainly had an impact on viewership. NASCAR saw season-long viewership increases for its Xfinity Series, which got an average of 1.04 million viewers and was up 9% from '20 and '19. No longer tied to a box atop the TV or a diary that viewers filled out, the company started to figure out how to report who was watching on TV, on cable, and on streaming platforms. These numbers were slightly lower compared to the 2019 Daytona 500, where they. I ask this question because two of the last three races (prior to Phoenix), at Texas, at Martinsville, were 3 hours, 42 minutes and thats in the fall against heavy competition. It has been a challenge for the sport to consistently grab the attention of its audience; however, there are reasons for optimism as the 2022 season represented a step in the right direction. At the start of the 21st Century NASCAR TV ratings meant everything. Average U.S. TV audience of NASCAR races 2019. After a marked decline in the middle of the previous decade, NASCAR's television numbers have been on the rebound over the past five years. You can contact him here or on the Sports Media Watch Twitter page. The other scenario that we could do is run midweek races, which we were forced to do in 2020. This was 9% less than last years race in Las Vegas, which attracted a total viewership of 4.396 million. Your email address will not be published. And because of the changes weve made as an industry that allows for the scheduling innovation that weve had over the last two or three years, our case to the networks for those network windows is a little bit more palatable. 1979-2004 numbers from Sports Business Daily 2.16.2005. Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.55 million viewers on FOX, flat in ratings and up 5% in viewership from last year (2.6, 4.34M). NBC Sports' 2021 NASCAR Cup Series viewership across NBC and NBCSN produced a Total Audience Delivery of 2.562 million viewers, according to Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics,. That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. Kyle Buschs win, which peaked with 5.85 million viewers, was the second-straight NASCAR race to increase year-over-year after the first eight declined. The sport mishandled the on-track racing by introducing the 550 horsepower package which caused the fanbase to lose trust. Date: Sunday, April 30 Time: 1 p.m. Last year, nearly 70 million unique viewers tuned. It is now the first race that has been up when it is a direct comparison with no other factors affecting it, such as a change from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon. Related: Phoenix race results from March 13, 2022 (NASCAR Cup . Along with that came an all-important metric: the Nielsen ratings. That NASCAR was doomed, soon to become nothing more than a memory. What does that present for NASCAR in terms of going out and trying to capture an audience? NASCAR averaged 2.93 viewers across Fox and NBC Sports in 2021, down 4 percent from last year (3.06 million) and 6 percent from 2019 (3.11 million), according to Sports Media Watch. 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. LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 14: (L-R) Brian Herbst, NASCAR managing director, broadcasting, Scott [+] Warfield, NASCAR managing director, social and digital content, Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Team Penske Ford Fusion, Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer and Laura Froelich, Twitter global head of sports partnerships, pose for a photo after NASCAR announces plans to live-stream in-car cameras on Twitter for the 2018 season on March 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. 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. Herbst said NASCAR expected more viewers to watch the resumed race than actually did. Overall, this season was a very successful one for the sport and its partners. I think theyve been really great partners. This year's Daytona 500 was watched by 8.17 million total viewers, or an eight percent decrease from the year before. The only potential exception to that at the end of their season will be the NFL. The Camping World Truck Series averaged 594,000 viewers, up 16% from '20 and 13% from '19. He swept both stage wins and ultimately took the checkered flag an impressive 4.8-seconds ahead of the field to claim his first career NASCAR [] The Wednesday night race at Martinsville Speedway in June averaged 1.71 million viewers, and one at Charlotte Motor. Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega averaged 4.554 million average viewers on FOX last weekend.