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The overnight ratings went up! Fox’s broadcast of that Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earned a 5.6 overnight Nielsen Media Research rating and a 12 market share, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports. The rating is 19.1 percent higher than the 4.7/10 the race earned overnight last year.
Remarkably, FOX’s 5.6/12 for the race nearly matched the combined ratings of head-to-head competition on ABC, CBS, and NBC (5.7/12), and when national ratings are released it’s likely that FOX will beat that three-network total. |
For the season-to-date, NASCAR On FOX is averaging a 6.8/13, a +5 percent gain over last year’s 6.5/13. Excluding the rain-impacted Fontana race, FOX has now aired five Sprint Cup programs this year, and all five have been either flat or up in the metered markets, according to Fox PR which appeared on the Jayski.com webpage.
The final Atlanta TV Ratings are also up. Fox’s broadcast of that Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earned a final 6.4 Nielsen Media Research rating and a 15 market share, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports. The rating is 23.1 percent higher than the 5.2/12 Fox earned for the Atlanta race last year. This report came from the SceneDaily.com and the Jayski.com webpages.
We’re not sure of what’s happening here? The answer could be that some of the old viewers have returned to the TV screen! If the increases continue then it’s good news for NASCAR and the networks. However, the racing season is still young and it’s been noted that viewers can be fickle which was the case last year and the second half of 2006..
Also, the television ratings for the Atlanta NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race were up 31 percent according to Nielsen Media Research. Friday night, the race scored a 1.05 (753,000 households), a significant increase over last year’s .80 (565,000 households). This report came from the Speed Cable Channel PR office.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series Kansas Lottery $150 Grand at Kansas Speedway, originally scheduled for Saturday, April 26th, will now take place one day earlier on Friday, April 25th, 2008. In addition, the track has designated Friday, April 25 “Kansas Lottery FREE Day at Kansas Speedway.” Grandstand admission to the race will be free, courtesy of the Kansas Lottery.
“With the support of long-time Kansas Speedway partner the Kansas Lottery, we were able to make Friday, April 25 ‘Kansas Lottery FREE Day at Kansas Speedway’ with free admission to the ARCA race,” said Kansas Speedway President Jeff Boerger. “I want to thank the Kansas Lottery for allowing us to move their race to Friday and I look forward to welcoming the community to Kansas Speedway and showcasing our facility for the Kansas Lottery $150 Grand.”
Organizers of the Australian Grand Prix hope to have secured the future of the event after agreeing to a compromise plan for the race start time after demands from Bernie Ecclestone to stage the race at night.
Ecclestone has been pushing for the race, the season curtain-raiser, to be pushed back in the interest of European TV viewers. Initially, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation resisted any such move, citing cost concerns.
But a compromise was reached under which the start has now been pushed back 90 minutes to 3.30 p.m. local time, (0430 GMT) and if the move proves successful in increasing European TV ratings, the race will be pushed back a further 90 minutes to 5 p.m. (0600 GMT) for 2009.
Yes, He REALLY Said That-Dale Earnhardt Jr., on rules violations in NASCAR. “We’re all out there trying to get an unfair advantage and you can’t hang one guy for it. You can’t really come down on one guy because we’re all trying to do that. If you’re walking around looking at all these cars you’d find little things that you wouldn’t like, you probably wouldn’t pass inspection on every one of them if you had them for a couple of days.” That came from the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter.
Let’s see what’s on the tube this weekend for the motorhead crowd. Being Easter weekend there’s no Cup, NHRA National or anything else in the USA on Sunday. But, on Friday at 2 a.m. it’s F1 Practice from Malaysia at 2 a.m. on Speed. while ESPN2 airs the NASCAR Nationwide Series Practice from Nashville. Saturday has F1 Qualifying from Malaysia on Speed in the early a.m. while it’s Nationwide Practice at 11 a.m. from Nashville on ESPN2 with ESPN offering the Nationwide Series race from that venue at 3 p.m. It’s a 2:30 a.m. Sunday, air time, live, for the F1 race in Malaysia on Speed. So if you don’t mind watching a redux of the F1 Malaysia race then tune into Speed at 1:30 p.m. Easter Sunday afternoon. (END)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.
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You dont suppose that the ratings are being influenced by NASCRAP,to help get advertising dollars ,do you?
The “jury is still out” on a rebound of the NASCAR ratings. I’d like to see what the ratings look like by mid-season before anyone can make an intelligent judgement. The NASCAR TV ratings slide took 18 months starting back in April of ‘06 and ended in November of ‘07. It may take that long to see if the rebound is sustainable.
Empty seats at every race . Fans complain each week about the horrible tv coverage and unwatchable on-air personalities . Yet we are told that the ratings are up . Any chance that Fox and/or Speedchannel are manipulating the figures ? I can’t see why that would be very difficult to do . Or could it be that the huge number of Toyota owners in America are tuning in to finally see their marque race . It is absolutely not the older fans coming back. They have driven away by the sheer incompetence of the owners and managers of NASCAR and will not be back . At least not until NASCAR makes sense again .