ESPN begins Sprint Cup telecasts with some momentum
By Michael Smith - Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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With ratings up for its Nationwide Series broadcasts and NASCAR shoulder programming, ABC/ESPN enters the Sprint Cup portion of its schedule feeling considerable momentum.
Network executives say the coverage has hit its stride in year two of its eight-year agreement to broadcast 17 races in the Cup series and the entire Nationwide Series schedule after a rookie season that was often criticized for its on-air talent and inconsistent approach.
The Cup schedule shifts from TNT to ESPN this weekend with Sunday’s broadcast of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
“As we learned about ourselves in year one, we took time in the offseason to really refine what we’re doing,” said Rich Feinberg, a senior coordinating producer at ESPN and the network’s vice president of motorsports. “We made adjustments, just like broadcasters do in any series, and things have really blossomed.”
ESPN points to the ratings increase this year as evidence of the improvement. Its 1.46 average cable rating for the Nationwide Series is up 17 percent over its ratings from 2007, while the 1.645 million average households are up 18 percent and the 2.192 million total viewers show an increase of 14 percent.
Those numbers are welcome news after ESPN last year showed decreases of 18 percent in cable ratings, 13 percent in households and 11 percent in total viewers on the Nationwide Series against 2006 numbers from FX and TNT. ABC’s 11 Cup races last year drew a 3.9 network rating, well short of the 4.7 that NBC averaged for the same number of races in 2006.
Among ESPN’s adjustments this year include inserting Dale Jarrett into the three-man booth to replace Rusty Wallace and a more consistent approach that stems from the weekend talent appearing regularly across ESPN’s platforms and shoulder programming, essentially tightening the rotation of faces viewers see.
“The numbers tell the story that we’ve been watching,” said John Aman, Nationwide’s advertising and brand officer. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”
ESPN also has seen a jump with its daily news show, “NASCAR Now.” Those numbers show a 32 percent ratings increase over last year through June.
“More fans are finding the show and staying with it longer,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. She added that ESPN will be expanding its NASCAR presence when it picks up the Cup schedule with a postrace edition of “NASCAR Now” on Sunday nights and by airing more Cup practice sessions when programming slots allow.
On the advertising side, while ESPN doesn’t release specific advertiser information, it says sales have been pacing well and that most of the title sponsors of the races are also advertising.
With auto manufacturers enduring difficult times, it remains uncertain how they’ll manage their ad buys through the rest of the year. Ford, for one, says it intends to fulfill the ad buys that it has made through the season’s stretch run on ESPN.
General Motors’ plans are less certain after announcing last week that it plans to slash ad spending, a significant blow given that GM is the nation’s fourth-biggest ad spender and perhaps the most significant NASCAR stakeholder, given its team and marketing support that is believed to run $100 million a year.
Ad spending on motorsports in general this year has been flat, according to TNS Media Intelligence figures in a Media Life story. Through May, ad spending was up 0.2 percent and a total of $386 million had been spent, but spending is expected to be slower through the rest of the year.
Michael Smith is a reporter with SportsBusiness Journal.
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