Erik Spanberg: NASCAR hopes switch to ESPN portion of season will boost TV ratings
ESPN's Shannon Spake interviews Jeff Gordon after the Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway last year. ESPN begins its broadcasts of the Sprint Cup Series this week at Indy. // Sam Cranston, Sam Cranston
COMMENTARY
Now that TNT has wrapped up its portion of the NASCAR season, it’s left to ESPN to see whether NASCAR can gain traction on TV.
Race audiences have been on a steady decline since reaching all-time highs five years ago. NASCAR responded with double-file restarts last year to generate more action on the track, then followed up in 2010 with its boys-have-at-it mantra to encourage side-by-side jostling and an extension of its green-white-checkered finishes. TV networks also went to more consistent starting times for races, with most starting at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sundays.
TNT’s six races, like Fox’s 13 Sprint Cup events to start the season, absorbed another decline in 2010. Viewers fell to 4.9 million per race on TNT, compared with 5.1 million in 2009, according to sister publication SportsBusiness Daily. Fox slipped to 7.6 million from 8.7 million and endured a 29% plunge among an important audience segment: young males.
ESPN returns with coverage of the Brickyard 400 on July 25. Unlike the past three seasons, ESPN – not its sister network ABC – will be where the majority of races air. In 2009, for example, ABC carried 11 of the ESPN-produced Sprint Cup races, while ESPN had six. This year, ESPN has 14, with ABC keeping three.
A quick glance at that role reversal might make you think NASCAR is being kicked to the cable curb. A closer look shows NASCAR might be better off on ESPN. Start with viewership last year, when the four regular ESPN race broadcasts (two others were run on Mondays because of rain) attracted an average of 5.8 million, edging out ABC’s 5.5 million for the other 11 races. ESPN reaches 100 million homes while ABC can be seen in 115 million.
Just as important as the narrowing of the gap between cable and broadcast is ESPN’s younger audience. That translated to a 26% larger audience of young males for races on ESPN last year versus those on ABC.
Those gains, as well as the general larger audience, fueled the switch, says Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions.
Moving to ESPN means more post-race coverage for NASCAR fans. As it does with Monday Night Football and other regularly scheduled events, ESPN plans to expand “SportsCenter” on Sunday afternoon to make for a smoother transition – and build off of the just-concluded race each week.
Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president of motorsports, says the length of the postrace show depends on when the race ends. If it ends late, more postrace coverage will move into “SportsCenter,” but no matter when the race concludes, “SportsCenter” will begin incorporating NASCAR coverage familiar to viewers of football and other sports: going back to the race site for additional analysis and thoughts with the broadcast team, possible pit-studio interviews with a driver and almost always a longer, follow-up session with the race winner.
“It will be an evolutionary process,” Feinberg says. “We’re excited about instituting some expanded levels of post-race coverage within ‘SportsCenter.’”
That should be welcome news not just for NASCAR, but also for race fans. Earlier this season, a controversy erupted over Fox’s limited post-race coverage when a race in Phoenix ran long and the follow-up was cut short. Fox hoped to expand post-race coverage online in the wake of that episode, but TNT parent Turner owns much of that territory through its NASCAR contract and as operator of NASCAR.com.
ESPN remains bullish on NASCAR despite the sport’s protracted slumps in attendance, sponsorships and overall TV ratings. The network touts increased interest among advertisers, including all four auto manufacturers.
Cranking up Sprint Cup coverage is more a continuation than a start-up, as ESPN airs the entire Nationwide Series, which began in February. Production and crews are the same for that series, but Feinberg acknowledges more pressure since the top-tier Sprint Cup series draws larger audiences.
And Sobieski, the network’s programming executive, believes the audiences will be there if the second-half Chase For The Sprint Cup delivers intriguing stories. ESPN saw audience gains when Danica Patrick debuted in the Nationwide Series this season, and again when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Daytona this month in a throwback No. 3 car.
“When the story’s there, we see those viewers coming,” she says. "We have an opportunity to capitalize on our viewership (with) young viewers.”
