Global RallyCross and Lucas Oil Offroad Racing Series 11/15-11/16 TV Ratings

These are from the weekend of 11/15 and 11/16.  The LOORRS broadcast had the more favorable slot in that it was shown on Saturday, up against significantly weaker college football broadcasts vs. the 11/16 GRC show which faced off against nationally televised NFL football.  The GRC broadcast was a showdown between Joni Wiman and Ken Block for the 2015 driver's title with Wiman coming out on top by finishing second to Block and garnering enough points to retain first place for the year (though his lack of a single win on the year will likely drive a change in the way GRC scores points for each event in '15)

Neither show fared that well, though the LOORRS show was no worse than its typical ratings.  GRC's 0.3 rating ties for its worst of the year and shortest of its brief existence.  This will wrap up GRC's programing for the year I would imagine and so I'll recap their ratings for their events below, prior to the weekend's full ratings.  Their high for the year was a 0.5, equating to 578,000 households and some 636,000 actual viewers and the low was a 0.3, equating to 350,000 and 382,000 viewers.  Overall this puts Global RallyCross a bit behind the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series shows as we will recap in the future.  Of note is the recent F1 ratings on NBC for the Brazil event which grabbed a 0.5 rating and two weeks prior a 0.7 rating for the USGP in Texas.  NBC paid $3 Million to acquire the rights to F1 in the US (prior to any production, talent, coverage costs), so to have LOORRS and GRC somewhat equaling those ratings with what is essentially a paid advertisement, costing the networks nothing, both can be viewed as being successful on their own terms.  Though when you compare the measly $3 million paid for F1 to the $2.4 billion Fox paid for NASCAR (not completely an apples to apples comparison but you get the idea) you understand how far behind in the Q ratings sports like F1, RallyCross or short course are from NAPCAR.

Global RallyCross 2015 Ratings:

5/24--0.4
6/22--0.3
7/20--0.5
7/26--0.3
8/03--0.3
9/20--0.5
9/21--0.3

NFL: Eagles-Packers (84%)	11/16	Fox	4:25-7:30pm	17.1
"Sunday Night Football": Patriots-Colts	11/16	NBC	8:30-11:15pm	13.6
NFL: (singleheader)	11/16	CBS	1:00-4:05pm	11.7
NFL: (regional)	11/16	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.1
College Football: Mississippi State-Alabama	11/15	CBS	3:30-7:15pm	6.6
College Football: Florida State-Miami	11/15	ABC	8:00-11:45pm	6.1
"Football Night in America"	11/16	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.4
College Football: Ohio State-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	12:00-3:30pm	4.3
"Fox NFL Sunday"	11/16	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.5
"The NFL Today"	11/16	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.8
College Football: Nebraska-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	3:30-7:15pm	2.3
College Football: Northwestern-Notre Dame	11/15	NBC	3:30-8:00pm	2.0
"Courage in Sports"	11/16	CBS	5:00-6:00pm	1.5
"College Football Today"	11/15	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	1.0
College Football: Texas-Oklahoma State	11/15	Fox	7:30-11:00pm	1.0
College Football: Washington-Arizona	11/15	Fox	3:30-7:15pm	0.9
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Russia	11/16	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.9
"Fox College Saturday"	11/15	Fox	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Ironman World Championship	11/15	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.5
"Notre Dame Football Pre-Game"	11/15	NBC	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	11/15	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Vanderbilt"	11/15	CBS	2:00-2:30pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Arkansas"	11/15	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.4
"World of X Games: ASP Surfing"	11/16	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4
"The Grantland Basketball Hour"	11/16	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.3
Global Rallycross: Las Vegas	11/16	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.3
Spartan Race: Vermont	11/16	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3

Global RallyCross and Offroad Motorsports Ratings for 8/2/14 & 8/3/14

Though there are some positives to take away from this past weekend's GRC broadcast rating, the bottom line is that it reinforces its status as a marginal TV product for prime sports viewing hours.

Admittedly, this past Sunday's show was not a live race, nor even a tape delayed one.  Instead it was a recap of the first five events of the season packaged into a neat hour and a half, edited down format.
On network TV it was competing directly against golf over on CBS.  Most concerning here is its ratings within the middle of NBC's motorsports/Red Bull oriented shows with a Mecum auto auction related and a Red Bull sponsored multi-sport adventure in Patagonia programs preceding GRC and brief show on Kurt Busch's attempt at the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 double coming after.

The GRC broadcast failed to hold the lead-in 0.4 ratings of a car auction or cross country trek and failed to support the 0.5 rating of the KB program.  Given NBC already had a full hour of the KB special in the tank (they would broadcast it the following day on NBCSN) they probly are kicking themselves for not running a full hour or more of that and cutting back on the GRC broadcast--though this is likely mitigated by the money Red Bull paid NBC for the airtime, perhaps Red Bull paid NBC more for the airtime than NBC could have sold the advertising space for on an extended KB show...perhaps.

On the positive side...the in house produced World of X Games surfing event and MLS soccer game on NBC both also saw 0.3 ratings so Red Bull can at least say--Hey, we'll pay you to put on our broadcast which will likely grab the same ratings as these other programs that YOU have to pay to produce.

So the 8/3 GRC broadcast saw some 347,000 households watching with an estimated 381,500 actual viewers.  Ratings for GRC's broadcasts for the year now are as follows:

5/24--0.4
6/22--0.3
7/20--0.5
7/26--0.3
8/3--0.3

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
World of X Games: ASP Surfing	8/2	ABC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	8/2	ABC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
"PGA Tour 2014: Playing With A Purpose"	8/2	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.5
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Third Round	8/2	CBS	2:00-6:00pm	1.9
MLS: Galaxy-Timbers	8/2	NBC	3:00-5:00pm	0.3
Breeders' Cup Challenge: Whitney Handicap	8/2	NBC	5:00-6:30pm	0.6
Guinness Int'l Champions Cup: Manchester United-Real Madrid	8/2	Fox	4:00-6:00pm	0.6
"PGA Championship Preview: This Is Major"	8/3	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.6
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Final Round	8/3	CBS	2:00-6:00pm	3.1
Mecum Dealmakers	8/3	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.4
"Red Bull: Project Acheron: Patagonia"	8/3	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.4
"Global Rallycross: Season Review"	8/3	NBC	4:00-5:30pm	0.3
"Kurt Busch 36"	8/3	NBC	5:30-6:00pm	0.5
Pro Football HOF Game: Giants-Bills	8/3	NBC	8:15-11:00pm	5.8

Mint 400, LOORRS and AMA Motocross TV Ratings From 7/5 and 7/6

 
Well, this was certainly a busy weekend for offroad motorsports fans.  Just on full Network TV there was the AMA Motocross race at Red Bud in Buchananm MI on Saturday from 3-4PM with NBC, then there was an hour worth of LOORRS coverage on CBS on Sunday and the big event of the weekend was the two hour broadcast of Mad Media's presentation of the '14 Mint 400 within the Red Bull Signature Series on NBC from 2-4PM.

The ratings for all three are right in line with historical offroad racing on the big networks.  The lowest rated broadcast was the LOORRS event on CBS that grabbed a 0.3 rating, equaling the Nick Faldo golf program also on CBS this weekend for the lowest rated sports event in the period but still equating to a 347,000 households viewing the show and close to 400,000 viewers of the program and its advertising.

The AMA Motocross event from RedBud on Saturday had a 0.4 rating.  I haven't really tracked motocross ratings in the past so I'm not sure how this compares historically but I will try and note their ratings going forward.  The 0.4 equates to some 462,000 households watching the rhythm sections and tabletops with in excess of 509,000 pairs of eyeballs tuned in for the broadcast.

The two hour long Mint 400 broadcast on NBC from 2-4PM on 7/6 produced a 0.4 rating, similar to that of the Motocross event with 462,000 households and 509,000 (conservative estimate) viewing the event.  Of note here is that the first hour of this broadcast overlapped with the LOORRS broadcast over on CBS.  There is certainly a crossover factor here the likely drew viewers away from each show depressing the ratings for each.  Viewed in aggregate for offroad motorsports however, it shows a solid audience of like minded viewers.  On this past Sunday afternoon there were at least 810,000 households and just shy of 1,000,000 people watching either shortcourse offroad racing or desert racing at the same time across the country--an amount that equals or exceeds the number of people viewing either the Men's or Women's Wimbeldon finals or Tour de France highlights.

That's pretty damn cool...

ELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
FIFA World Cup quarterfinal: Argentina-Belgium	7/5	ABC	12:00-2:00pm	n/a
"SportsCenter"	7/5	ABC	2:00-3:00pm	2.0
Wimbledon: Ladies' Final: Petra Kvitova d. Genie Bouchard (replay)	7/5	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	0.7
"Faldo Series: The Time Is Now"	7/5	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.3
PGA Tour: Greenbrier Classic: Third Round	7/5	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	1.1
MLB: (regional)	7/5	Fox	7:00-10:15pm	1.6
Tour de France: Stage 1 highlights	7/5	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.4
AMA Motocross	7/5	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.4
World Series of Fighting	7/5	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
Wimbledon: Gentlemen's Final: Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer (replay)	7/6	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	0.7
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	7/6	CBS	2:00-3:00pm	0.3
PGA Tour: Greenbrier Classic: Final Round	7/6	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	1.8
Red Bull Signature Series: Mint 400 (off-road racing)	7/6	NBC	2:00-4:00pm	0.4
Tour de France: Stage 2 highlights	7/6	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5

Baja 1000 World of X Games Ratings...

This one came up as a bit of a surprise.  It didn't seem like were a lot of people who knew about Roger Norman getting ESPN/ABC on board with broadcasting the one hour show covering the 2013 Baja 1000.  Not only did it get broadcast once but it got broadcast twice, once on ESPN and again on ABC in the middle of this past Saturday.

The ratings did not end up being spectacular but were again in the same range of recent shortcourse shows on similar networks at similar times--though at the upper end, exceeding many as well.  Additionally while the broadcast was tied for the lowest rating of the weekend, it was tied with a large number of other broadcasts including NBC's coverage of Premier League Soccer.

Another point of note here is that the Red Bull Signature Series Year End Wrapup which contained lots of shortcourse racing as well as the Frozen Rush coverage grabbed a 0.6 rating.  The 0.5 rating means that some 571,000 TVs were tuned into the Baja 1K coverage while some 685,000 were turned to the Red Bull program.  A conservative estimate of 1.1 viewers per TV (my household had three people watching it) grows the audience for each broadcast to 628,100 and 753,500 respectively. So between the two shows, well in excess of 1 million viewers took in offroad racing coverage of some kind this weekend...

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
"World Of X Games"	12/28	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.5
"ESPN Sports Saturday:	12/28	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.7
"NCAA Men of March: Rick Pitino"	12/28	CBS	1:00-1:30pm	0.5
"NCAA Men of March: John Calipari"	12/28	CBS	1:30-2:00pm	0.5
College Basketball: Villanova-Syracuse	12/28	CBS	2:00-4:30pm	1.1
College Basketball: Louisville-Kentucky	12/28	CBS	4:30-6:30pm	2.1
EPL: Sunderland-Cardiff	12/28	NBC	12:00-2:30pm	0.5
U.S. Olympic Trials: Speed Skating	12/28	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.7
Golf: Long Drive World Championship	12/28	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.6
"Red Bull Signature Series Highlight Show"	12/28	NBC	5:00-6:00pm	0.6
"The NFL Today"	12/29	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	3.0
"NFL on CBS": (regional)	12/29	CBS	1:00-4:15pm	10.7
"NFL on CBS": Ravens-Bengals (62%)	12/29	CBS	4:15-7:30pm	12.0
"Fox NFL Sunday"	12/29	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.6
"NFL on Fox": (regional)	12/29	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.5
"NFL on Fox": Packers-Bears (63%)	12/29	Fox	4:15-7:30pm	15.2
"U.S. Ski Team 36: Bode Miller"	12/29	NBC	1:00-1:30pm	0.5
U.S. Olympic Trials: Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined	12/29	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.9
U.S. Olympic Trials: Speed Skating	12/29	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	1.0
Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping	12/29	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.8
"Dew Tour Year In Review"	12/29	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.6
"Football Night in America"	12/29	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.1
"Sunday Night Football": Eagles-Cowboys	12/29	NBC	8:30-11:45pm	16.8