Thirty-five percent of participants said they were now watching less sports due to political and social messaging, whereas only 11 percent said they now watch more. Fox Sportss coverage was particularly abominable, with a seemingly endless parade of commercial interruptions mixed with the Ford Cutaway Car, the Home Depot Pit Crew Member, the Viagra Boner Of The Race, whatever, all during green flag racing. Now72 years old, the racing organization has managed to evolve through the decades in order to meet the changing trends, technology, and preferences that directly affect the sport. Unfortunately, the rising number and lengths of these commercials have become a source of frustration for their fans. I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. And based on what we see today, NASCAR seems to be on an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. "While it's easy to cite 'cord-cutting' as a catch-all explanation for what's going on, keep in mind, Nielsen ratings do incorporate streaming services, albeit imperfectly . That isnt insignificant when it comes to explaining the decline of NASCAR. While Nielsen was undergoing its transformation other smaller agencies stepped into fill the void. Furthermore, their retirements are probably not the sole reason for NASCAR's viewership issues either. In 2006, for instance, more than 19 million people tuned in to watch the Daytona 500 on TV; in 2018, only a little more than nine million watched. And I said all that without even bringing up that profoundly irritating cartoon gopher. So if Im right, in a few years NASCAR may become Americas summer sport again. Im not buying the its too safe bit as a cause for the decline of NASCAR. | It was the first time in a while where we didn't have a decline on NBC. The share has become an increasingly relevant metric to sports leagues in recent months, as it is a metric immune from the broader trend of viewers watching less linear television. Since this is a non-ideological blog, I wont get into the things that the NFL, NBA and MLB have recently done to drive away a significant portion of their fanbases. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. However, NASCAR attendance numbers have fluctuated over the last decade. All that said, the unveiling of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 certainly didnt help. So that's household using televisions. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images). Fans might be tired of the novelty of the playoffs. They hate all of the commercials. With all the different metrics used to measure a sport these days however, it can be complicated. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. There's a lot of people that are looking around and understand that the economics of our sport probably are in a better place now than they've been in a long time.. When added to metrics from an agency known as Joyce Julius & Associates, which specializes in measurement and analysis of media promotions that showed just how much TV exposure a sponsor was getting, NASCAR teams were able to justify the high cost of the sponsorships they were charging. As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. It took time, maybe too much time, but NASCAR is finally addressing the three biggest reasons for the decline of the sport. While viewership was down overall, it should be noted that the share the percentage of homes tuned to the race in the average minute out of the total number of homes using televisions increased 8% from last year and 11% from 2019. Now, they buy their way in. NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop, 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. But it's an uphill fight for us and a lot of other sports properties. By the measurements used today, NASCAR then is in a very good place. 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 Photo credit: PDA.PHOTO on Best Running / CC BY-ND The Yankees were always good for baseball. FONTANA, Calif. Most of NASCAR's Cup Series drivers feel like they're saying their final goodbye to a dear old friend this weekend. Internal surveys show that 75 percent of Nascar fans overall approve of next year's schedule -- one that includes a dirt race at Bristol -- and 90 percent of the 18 to 34 demographic approves. And you hear more and more about this today. The news sort of heads downhill from there. 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. 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. 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. So if you can say that it's you and the NFL in terms of stability of your audience. 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. Yet instead of focusing their marketing on Johnsons unequaled supremacy, NASCAR chose to put all of their marketing eggs into the Danica Patrick basket, believing a swimsuit model who could drive a racecar would save the sport. Dover is a 1-mile track, and 11 laps does not take long. Its certainly healthy in terms of eyeballs, Hebrst said. That doesnt mean they dont have talent, or arent brave. The Truck Series averaged 594,000, up 16% from last year (511K) and 13% from 2019 (549K). (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. The previous two races the Daytona Roval and Homestead-Miami posted double-digit increases over the same Cup Series stops last season, but those races had the benefit of moving up from the lower-rated summer portion of the schedule. The NFL only went down 9%, but please, tell me about anthem kneelers. But the initial Chase, an artificial and contrived points reset, was despised by fans. Danica Patrick just retired. Social impressions, social following, a positive buzz of our sport, which is measured by third parties, like at YouGov is up 2.5 X over the course of the last two to three years.. There are not many. While NASCARs ratings were a record low for a second event of the season, the NTT IndyCar Series found themselves with a massive jump in ratings. The move of the Labor Day race to California was part of an ongoing trend. The sport no longer has Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson, so theres an opportunity for new fan favorites to emerge, formed by on-track performance rather than sentiment. 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). In case you werent there or dont remember, in 2004 NASCAR welcomed their new series sponsor, Nextel (now Sprint), with a new playoff system called the Chase. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. That metric is down 16% over the last 24 months. The markets simply couldnt support them anymore. 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). 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). In todays world TV ratings arent the big deal they once were nor the only thing that matters. It is understandable that throughout its existence, rule changes have been implemented at NASCAR, and the reasons for such have varied from safety, technological, or as organization initiatives to provide more challenges or add excitement to the races. Nascar, long a symbol of Southern heritage, has become an unlikely battleground in the debate over whether the Confederate battle flag still has a place in America. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. NASCAR still attempts to do the best it can when it comes to getting the word out. He pointed out that despite the ratings decline, NASCAR achieved a "double-digit share increase" last year. Photo credit: sarahstierch on Visualhunt.com / CC BY 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. The Monday portion of that race averaged a 4.2 and 7.03 million, compared to a 6.2 and 10.94 million for the first 20 laps on Sunday before weather rolled in. In response to its rapidly growing popularity nationwide, NASCAR moved away from the Southeast fans who brought the sport to the dance, and began holding races in places like Vegas, Chicago and Los Angeles. I have been around and covered NASCAR for over two decades. IndyCar always has side-by-side commercials during green flag racing. After years of seeing its once enormous audience dwindle to almost nothing, NASCAR is finally righting the ship. Compared to Week 2 of last year's USFL, which consisted of two games on broadcast and two on cable, the XFL's Week 2 audience was down just slightly (661K to 655K). 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. . 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. Digital and social consumption is as important now, as it's ever been; probably more important now than it's ever been, he said. Photo credit: balpeck on Best Running / CC BY-SA Brandon Kochkodin. The Daytona Road Course averaged 4.750 million viewers during the event. In NASCAR, the equivalent of a ref would be the flagmen, who not only flag the start and end of the race but flag drivers with caution warnings for safety and rules enforcement. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? On the re-debut of the XFL, the league's TV ratings down in a pretty big way, according to Sports Media Watch. 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. 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