Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Collection championship race gained by Ryan Blaney had roughly 300,000 fewer viewers than the identical race a season in the past.
Per Nielsen information through Sports activities TV Rankings, a median of simply over 2.9 million folks watched Blaney win his first Cup Collection title over Kyle Larson, William Byron and Christopher Bell. Final season’s championship race — gained by Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano — had a median viewers of three.213 million viewers.
The decline comes after two seasons of viewers stability for the Cup Collection finale. Final season’s race had mainly the identical viewers because the 2021 finale (3.214 million) and had roughly 150,000 extra viewers than the 2020 finale (3.063 million).
The decrease viewership for Sunday’s race is barely above the common decline in NASCAR viewership total in 2023. NASCAR president Steve Phelps mentioned Friday that the collection was content material with the modest declines total after important viewer losses at first of the season.
“NBC got here again in a strong means,” Phelps mentioned. “These metrics are up. If you happen to think about again in March we had been down 15%, now we’re down mid-single digits. We’re pleased with the place that’s.”
Sunday’s common viewers is, nonetheless, lower than half of what it was for the 2016 season finale. Over 6 million folks watched Jimmie Johnson win his seventh and remaining title that season.
NASCAR has only one extra 12 months remaining on its present Cup Collection tv cope with Fox and NBC, and you’ll wager that each networks are taking viewership developments into consideration on the negotiating desk with NASCAR. Each networks are anticipated to proceed their relationships with the inventory automobile racing collection after the expiration of the present deal.
The published negotiations additionally come as Cup Collection groups desire a greater share of cash from the tv rights charges NASCAR receives. Cup groups are having discussions with NASCAR concerning the renewal of the constitution settlement that ensures 36 automobiles entry into each race and a much bigger share of the prize cash obtainable on the finish of the season.
“We’ve acknowledged that we wish to change the paradigm for our race groups and we want to ensure our race groups are worthwhile, competing on the race tracks,” Phelps mentioned. “We’re involved in having their enterprise worth climb, as I mentioned earlier.
“No timeline, however we’re, as we’re finalizing our media rights, speaking about different parts of what our charters would seem like that aren’t monetary.”
