Fox’s broadcast of Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway earned the highest overnight rating of any weekend sports broadcast (for that weekend), posting a 4.1 and an 8 market share, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports.
The 4.1 rating matched the overnight figure of 2006, when the race earned a 7 market share. The Daily also reports that final Nielsen figures for the April 15 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway show that Fox aired earned a 5.6/14, with the rating up 3.7 percent over 2006′s 5.4/13. This info came from the jayski.com webpage.
On the subject of TV ratings Peter M. DeLorenzo writes in his RANTS column that the New York Times took notice of NASCAR’s TV ratings problem which discussed uncertainty in the sanctions success. DeLorenzo goes one better and discusses the NASCAR Bubble in which he feels that the automakers and corporations involved with that organization could be dragged down with NASCAR’s plunging image. We don’t think that NASCAR’s plight will be as bad as DeLorenzo predicts. However, the downward TV ratings and attendance should be a wake-up call for NASCAR CEO Brian France to make some adjustments should be made to NASCAR’s current business plan.
The old school dirt upon which professional stock car racing was built will play host to today’s racing stars when the third annual Nextel Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice takes place June 6 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. And for those not lucky enough to grab a seat for the dirt late model race featuring 25 world renowned drivers as they battle for dirt supremacy, HBO Pay-Per-View will present the event live to the entire nation. Proceeds from this ground-breaking telecast will support the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Tony Stewart Foundation. It will be interesting to see how much success HBO has with this Pay-For-View event. As far as we can determine, it will be HBO’s first attempt at a mototorsports event plus being live.
The all-star race will feature such racing icons as Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Bobby Labonte and more. All will pilot 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock cars capable of putting out over 800 horsepower.
The live broadcast will begin at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT), with an immediate replay and subsequent replays throughout the week and the following weekend. HBO Pay-Per-View’s first ever racing telecast has a suggested retail price $24.95 and available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming in the pay-per-view industry. Ordering information and up-to-the minute racing information is available at www.hbo.com.
Let’s check to see what’s cooking on TV this weekend for the gearheads. It heats up on Friday with an 11 a.m. Cup Practice session from Richmond on Speed. Speed comes back at 4 p.m. with Busch Qualifying from RIR followed by Cup Qualifying from that same track, all on that same cable outlet. The NASCAR Busch race airs on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. from Richmond. Saturday’s highlights include NHRA Qualifying from St. Louis on The Duce. Fox kicks in with the airing of the Cup event from RIR at 7 p.m. Sunday goes like this with a bunch of biker action on Speed starting at 1 p.m. with the SuperX Season Wrap-up on CBS. At 2 p.m. more bike coverage gets underway on Speed at 2 p.m. with Formula Xtreme from Fontana then the FIM 250 from China and the MotoX event held in Vegas follows. ESPN2 returns with the NHRA Finals from St. Louis at 7 p.m.(end)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.
