NASCAR Drives NBC, NBCSN To Viewership Milestones

NASCAR fuels NBCSN’s best third quarter in history and status as fastest-growing cable network. 2015 is on pace to be NBCSN’s most-watched year ever.

The addition of NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series racing to NBC Sports Group’s portfolio in 2015 has driven a number of records and milestones, according to data provided by The Nielsen Company.

Last week’s broadcast of the 2015 Sprint Cup Championship from Miami on NBC stands as the most-watched NASCAR season finale in a decade, and as NBCSN prepares to present Friday night’s 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, the cable network is poised to close out its most-watched year on record.

Since the debut of live NASCAR racing over July 4th weekend, NBCSN has averaged 183,000 viewers in Total Day audience (6 a.m.-6 a.m.), which marks an increase of +120 percent over the same period one year ago and the best Total Day increase for any cable network in that five-month stretch (June 29-Nov. 29). As noted earlier this fall, NASCAR fueled NBCSN to its most-watched third quarter (June 29-Sept. 27) in history.

NBC’s five 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup races reached a total audience of nearly 31 million viewers (30.68M), up +42 percent vs. those races in 2014 (21.61M), and the Nov. 22 broadcast of the 2015 Sprint Cup Championship from Miami on NBC is the most-watched NASCAR season finale in a decade.

The five Sprint Cup races on NBC averaged a 3.21 rating and 5.25 million viewers, up +12 percent and +10 percent, respectively, over those events in 2014.

Highlights surrounding the 2015 NASCAR season on NBC and NBCSN include:

• The addition of NASCAR puts NBCSN on pace to deliver its most-watched year in history.
  
  - NBCSN has already registered its best Third Quarter on record (July-September), and followed that with record highs for October (179,000 Total Day viewers; up +129 percent vs Oct. 2014) and November (146,000 viewers, up +85 percent vs Nov. 2014).
  
  - Sprint Cup races account for 5 of NBCSN’s top 10 most-watched telecasts in the network’s history, with Indianapolis, Michigan, Pocono and Talladega ranking as the network’s top 4.


• The Nov. 22, 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship averaged 7.64 million viewers and posted a combined 4.42 national HH rating on NBC and NBCSN, marking increases of +46 percent (vs. 5.22 million) +41 percent (vs. 3.14 HH) over the previous year’s presentation on ESPN.
  
  - The 7.64 million viewers make last Sunday’s Championship the most-watched NASCAR’s season finale since NBC presented the season-ending event in 2005.
  
  - Viewing peaked from 7:45P-7:56 p.m. ET with nearly 12.4 million average viewers as Kyle Buschand Jeff Gordon raced to the finish line, ranking as the largest peak audience for NASCAR since the 2015 Daytona 500.


• NASCAR America delivered its most-watched month on record in November, averaging 118,000 viewers during its 5 p.m. ET premieres, up +84 percent vs. Nov. 2014.


• NBC Sports Live Extra closes out the 2015 NASCAR season with a total of 571,000 uniques and 67 million live minutes.
  
  - Jeff Gordon’s farewell race set NBC Sports Live Extra traffic records, and was the most-streamed NASCAR race delivering 84,000 unique users and 4 million live minutes.
  
  - Versus the 2015 Sprint Cup season average, uniques were up +126 percent and live minutes were up +64 percent for the Nov. 22nd Championship race.