|
3/24/04
 Drag
racing, television and you
There are many issues concerning the sport of drag racing that NHRA's
management team and I don't agree on. There is one, however, that we
both see eye-to-eye on. And it is: The current and future health and
growth of the sport of drag racing absolutely depends on the sport's
ability to attract and retain a television audience!
Unfortunately, and despite what you may have heard or read, the NHRA
and IHRA National events (and for that matter almost all of the
televised drag racing shows including Imports and Pro Mods) televised
on ESPN2 and the Speed Channel attract a very small audience compared
to almost any other motor sport except motocross.
Let's look at the facts. ESPN2 claims around 89 million subscribers. If
an NHRA National event broadcast garners a Nielsen rating of one with a
one share then one percent of the 89 million households or
approximately 890,000 TV sets were tuned into that broadcast. Speed
Channel (where IHRA's races air) that claims about 64 million
subscribers in North America, so a rating of one would mean about
640,000 viewers.
From every source I've been able to check with, an excellent rating
number for any NHRA or IHRA race is a ONE! So, allowing for repeat
broadcasts or several people watching each TV set, and a very generous
average Nielsen rating of one, NHRA broadcasts could conceivably reach
about 30 million viewers a year. IHRA shows on the Speed Channel reach
maybe 10 million. But there is a serious caveat to the above numbers.
Apparently, neither NHRA nor IHRA are getting ratings of one or above.
For obvious reasons, obtaining the actual Nielsen ratings for either
the NHRA or IHRA isn't an easy task for the press. They just aren't
being made readily available. At one time last year NHRA did inform the
media of the ratings, but at that time ratings above a one were common.
That evidently is no longer the case.
The only conclusion I can come to is that the ratings aren't very good.
I mean, c'mon, if they were really good NHRA would be shouting it from
the rooftops. They aren't.
In order to get some information I made some calls and eventually found
a network source that gave me the Nielsen numbers for ESPN broadcast of
the CSK Nationals at Phoenix, as well as some other numbers. They
aren't very encouraging. The Nielsen ratings for the Los Angeles market
were a .7 with a share of 1 on Saturday and a .9 with a share of 2 on
Sunday. Each rating point in the L.A. area represents about 53,000
households. The Nielsen ratings nationally for the same weekend were .3
on Saturday and a .4 on Sunday, which means that substantially less
that half a million sets were tuned to NHRA drag racing each day that
weekend.
I recently spoke with a major manufacturer's executive, who asked not
to be identified, who told me that their research based on the Nielsen
rating numbers they'd received indicated that during the period from
the beginning of the 2001 NHRA season through the end of the 2003
season the average rating number for NHRA broadcasts dropped 19
percent.
Maybe there are too many drag racing shows. The latest figures I could get
for the ratings of an NHRA Sport Compact race was a Nielsen
rating of .1! A tenth of a point!
Perhaps the ratings are better for the Gatornationals shows.
We haven't been able to get the numbers yet.
Now NHRA isn't the only motor sport with TV rating troubles. This year
NASCAR's ratings for their last three televised races in Las Vegas,
Atlanta and Darlington are down almost 10 percent from the 2003
broadcasts from the same events.
But to put all of this in perspective, on the March 6-7 weekend the
NASCAR race from Las Vegas had a national Nielsen rating of 5.8 with a
14 share. More than six million households watched that event while
approximately 600,000 saw the NHRA event. Multiply that number by at
least 36 times or more and you get the picture. Sponsoring a NASCAR
hitter for one race will get a sponsor the same number of eyes in one
race as they would get in ten races sponsoring an NHRA car. Oh and
don't forget NASCAR drew about 5.3 million spectators in the
grandstands in 2003.
I'm not saying that NHRA or IHRA's television packages and spectator
counts don't deliver value to series or team sponsors or advertisers.
If 30 million households per year get the NHRA television packages and
another million fans attend the races in person, then the dollar figure
the Coca-Cola Company's POWERade brand paid to be the series sponsor is
probably justified, as would be team sponsorships. However, the above
numbers are a best-case scenario. If they are substantially less than
that, well...maybe.
And maybe some of the Fortune 500 companies rumored to have been
interested in investing in NHRA and IHRA got the real television
numbers and said, "Pass!"
Which brings me the point of this rant. Drag racing has a problem: the
gap between the TV exposure sponsors get being involved with NHRA or
IHRA versus what other motor sports like NASCAR, the IRL, the Busch
Series and even the NASCAR Truck series offer is widening. The question
is, can the gap be narrowed and how?
I think the gap can be narrowed but only with better television. The
DRO readers who have written us concerning Darr Hawthorne and Jok
Nicholson's columns on the current NHRA television programs say they
can't stand the current format. Not one person wrote to say they liked
the shows. Now maybe every one of DRO's 120,000 readers just loves to
hate anything NHRA, but I don't think that is so. Our readers are
hardcore drag racing fans and racers who love the sport and want it to
thrive. When you can't get those folks to watch drag racing on TV then
how can anyone reasonably expect new TV fans to be attracted to the
sport?
Can somebody please explain to me how you can take a sport with 200-mph
door cars and motorcycles and 300-mph race cars powered by V-8's
burning rocket fuel and make it boring?
There is a very famous Latin phrase, "Carpe diem" which means "Seize
the day!" Someone at NHRA or ESPN needs to do just that. Instead of
acting as if everything is just fine, they need to admit that they've
failed and change the tune-up. Admit that what is being sent out over
the airwaves doesn't do NHRA drag racing any justice and CHANGE IT.
Here's just a suggestion, Mr. Director, Mr. Commentator, or Mr. Pit
Reporter: go to a National event and park yourself in a seat close to
the starting line without your ESPN shirt on. Sit through a qualifying
session or eliminations, listen to the sounds, look at the cars, listen
to the fans and then go home and watch one of the two-hour long NHRA
broadcasts. I'm guessing you won't like what you see. I don't blame the
talent used on the current shows anymore than I'd blame a crewman when
a Top Fuel or Funny Car struggles. They take their orders from the
director/tuner.
Because, even though NHRA negotiated a one year extension to their
current contract, if ratings continue to be below a single point, NHRA
drag racing will continue to get more timeslots like the 2:30am-4:30am
EST spot they had for this week's qualifying from Gainesville. I bet
the advertisers on that broadcast were thrilled. NHRA buys the time and
pays production costs for the shows that air on ESPN. Somebody there
has to say ENOUGH!!!
DRO has sent copies of the letters we got from readers to Jim Trace,
NHRA's Director of Broadcasting & Video Communications, and producer
Shawn Murphy at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn. I don't know if
they are paying attention, but if you fans/paying customers out there
want some change, I recommend a letter or a phone call. They probably
won't listen to a troublemaker like me, but you guys pay the bills.
You, they should listen to.
|
