By David G Firestone
So I’m very busy right now, between work, new YouTube projects, and construction going on inside and out of my house. As such, between now and December, my content on The Driver Suit Blog may slow down. I apologize in advance.
With that said, I’d like to discuss the current broadcast deals that NASCAR has. The current deals feature FOX, Amazon Prime, Turner, and NBC. FOX is the best, aside from Jamie Little in the booth during ARCA and Truck Series. Seriously, she has no idea what she is doing.
Turner’s coverage was mediocre, not Earth shaking, not awful. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but not as great as it could have been. Amazon Prime was the same as Turner, though I could have done without Steve Letarte explaining race strategy to a bar full of puppets. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?
My big question is: Why did NASCAR resign with NBC? Well, it’s the latest move in a long line of NASCAR ignoring the fans, and their complaints. NBC’s coverage hasn’t been popular with fans, and this goes back to the NBCSN era. In the era when IndyCar and the NHRA both have one network deals with FOX, why resign with NBC?
Say what you want about Cracker Barrel as a company, but they at least realized how bad they looked, and reverted back to their original logo and design. It’s not bad to admit you made a bad decision, and reverse course. Doubling down on a failing strategy isn’t good for business. Yet the NBC deal is just another example of NASCAR doubling down on a failing strategy.
Add to that the fact that there is a new issue at play. Nielsen has changed their analysis, which, they claim will provide more accurate ratings and viewership numbers. Well, since this new system has been implemented, viewership numbers are down sharply. This is not a surprise, since AEW has suffered down numbers as well.
This does not bode well for racing moving forward. The 1990’s racing boom is gone, and will never come back. Viewers have left and will never come back. Advertising is down, and will only get worse. Could this lead to the end of racing? No, they are getting over a million viewers per race, and those aren’t bad, given the sheer amount of content we have access to. But long-term, this might lead to lower profits and worse media deals. Time will tell.
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