Bristol viewership down 15%?

[Jag_Warrior]

I was watching one of the Speed NASCAR shows this morning and they announced that Bristol's TV numbers were down 15% from last year. This one I'm having a hard time understanding or explaining. One of the guys (Kenny Wallace) claimed it had to do with March Madness. Another claimed it was because there are so many more things on TV these days. That's all well and good, but the logic doesn't play out. We're talking about the TV numbers from LAST year, not 30 years ago. With each passing year, there's always more on TV. As far as the March Madness argument... uh, I don't follow basketball that much any more, but I'm pretty sure that March Madness has always been in... well, MARCH!

Clearly these guys were just pulling excuses out of the butts. But what got me is, Bristol is ALWAYS an exciting race to watch - hardly ever a dull moment or lap. Plus the CoT. Plus Juan Montoya. Plus the last race at Bristol before they rip up the track and change it somewhat. Plus, did I mention this was BRISTOL?!

Anyway, it may be that NASCAR ratings are peaking, but it confuses me that one of the more historically exciting races would see that much of a drop.

[RaceFanStan]

I watched the race @ Bristol & I will continue to watch ALL of the NASCAR races.
I don't worry about the ratings or % viewers for any event.
The bottom line is that the REAL fans will watch the NASCAR races.

[GARYGAZZA]

That 15%must be us Virgin Media cable customers who still do not get live races.Tank god for TVU.

[Jag_Warrior]

I watched the race @ Bristol & I will continue to watch ALL of the NASCAR races.
I don't worry about the ratings or % viewers for any event.
The bottom line is that the REAL fans will watch the NASCAR races.

I watched it as well, RFS. So the question may not apply to you or me. Being that it's the closest track to me, I never miss Bristol. But the question does remain. Any theories? Of all the races to see lower viewership, why & how Bristol?

[DavePI2]

because those who are not hard core fans and were only watching it because it was the thing to do are bored and are starting to go elsewhere.

David

[Mark in Oshawa]

NASCAR was the new hot fad with the casual sports fan for about the last 2 or 3 years. Now people are moving on to whatever is the next new fad. Maybe weather was nicer in more parts of the nation and more people decided to go outside? Listen, out of any ratings NASCAR gets, I suspect 25% of the viewers are casual race fans. They can come and go at any time, and I am not sure you can try to attribute why they watch or don't. I know for me, I watch Bristol normally, but I was in Hawaii at the time, and my hotel for whatever reason didn't seem to carry Fox. So I am sure I am one person who didn't watch they normally would count on!

[call_me_andrew]

I watched the race @ Bristol & I will continue to watch ALL of the NASCAR races.
I don't worry about the ratings or % viewers for any event.
The bottom line is that the REAL fans will watch the NASCAR races.

So REAL fans will watch NASCAR no matter how dumb their ideas are?
Those aren't fans, those are sheep.

I think the CoT played an important role in this.

[RaceFanStan]

Being a true fan of NASCAR has nothing to do with sheep.
A true fan of NASCAR realizes that it isn't a democracy.
An intelligent fan can accept change & not whine every time something doesn't go as expected.
The knowledgeable NASCAR fan knows that NASCAR will always attempt to make the racing better.

It would appear that some so-called NASCAR fans just want to bitch & moan,
they don't care about NASCAR, they just want to disagree with everything NASCAR.

[Lee Roy]

All of the NASCAR TV ratings started declining last year. They are continuing to decline again this year. I think it will continue to happen to all of the races, including Bristol. It's a general trend, kind of like the tide, it raise and lower all boats.

Why? Who knows. There are always some kind of half-donkeyed excuses for why it's happening, but I think a correction was inevitable after so many years of continued increases in ratings.

How much more will the TV ratings decline before they stabilize? Who knows. I don't think it will fall into the zeropointsomeinsignificantnumber region that the "Indy Car" series (both flavors of kool-aide) now finds themselves in, but I do think that they will continue to decline for a while.

You can find the details on NASCAR TV ratings at jayski:

http://www.jayski.com/pages/tvratings.htm

[Mark in Oshawa]

Andrew, welcome to the RFS and LeeRoy answer to everything. IF you dislike it, you are not a real fan. IT is ok, you can be a fan of NASCAR and not like some aspects of the sport, just like I can watch the NFL and wonder if they will ever get rid of the fair catch, or watch Baseball and hope for the death of the DH, or watch NHL hockey and wonder if they will ever get that fighting is highly overratted and underpunished. You can be a fan of the sport and not like some parts of it, just realize that Stan and Lee Roy will call you out on it. The France Family must be medicating their water supply or something.