This week we’ll stick with just the simple weekend TV
ratings from Network TV. For the
purposes of our conversation we’ll define Network TV as those stations most
commonly broadcasting an “over the air” signal—signals you can pick up for free
with a pair of “rabbit ears” (this would most commonly be your local NBC, ABC,
CBS and Fox stations). The weekend of
8/9 and 8/10 saw two “offroad” motorsports broadcasts, both on NBC.
The first of these was the Saturday, 8/8 live broadcast of
the 450 Moto2 from 3-4PM Eastern at the Red Bull Unadilla National in New
Berlin, NY. Trey Canard and his Muscle
Milk Honda would follow up his 4th place Moto1 result by taking the
Moto2 win followed by Moto1 winner Ryan Dungey.
The hour long broadcast produced a 0.3 rating which equates to an
estimated 347,000 households tuning in to watch. If you figure that a few of these households
had more than one individual watching the program (say 1 in 10) then you end up
with about 380,000 people were exposed during this time frame to the sport in
general and to the advertisers (Red Bull and Lucas Oil were foremost amongst
these) in particular. As a point of
contrast, during this same time period, ABC was broadcasting the NASCAR
Nationwide event a stone’s throw away in NY over at Watkins Glenn, obtaining a
1.2 rating.
Sunday 8/9 would bring another offroad event on NBC. This time, its broadcast wasn’t so clear to
the casual observer. If you looked at
your available TV programs on Sunday you would have seen the “World of
Adventure Sports presented by GoPro” on NBC from 3-4 PM Eastern. Great, but I’m busy revalving my shocks or
watching the final round of the PGA Championship over on CBS you say. Well, then you would have missed some sweet
HD coverage of the 2013 Vegas to Reno BITD race. Won by Jason Voss in Trick Trucks and CJ
Hutchins in the 1500 class, the coverage here would not be for the full hour as
within this program was also coverage of other non-motorsports events such as a
marathon on Mt. Blanc in France and downhill mountain biking. Still, the program did generate a 0.4 rating,
reflecting about 462,000 households tuning in with about 508,000 viewers. When you consider that this broadcast was
competing directly against the culminating hours of the PGA Championship (6.0
rating) and the NASCAR Sprint Cup race on ESPN (3.1 rating) it’s really quite
decent.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
| NASCAR Nationwide Series: Zippo 200 at The Glen |
8/9
|
ABC
|
2:15-5:00pm
|
1.2
|
| "ESPN Sports Saturday" |
8/9
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
| Major League Fishing: Summit Cup Championship |
8/9
|
CBS
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
0.5
|
| PGA Championship: Third Round |
8/9
|
CBS
|
2:00-7:15pm
|
3.2
|
| AMA Motocross |
8/9
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
| U.S. Swimming National Championships |
8/9
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
| World of X Games: Games of Skate |
8/10
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.4
|
| PGA Championship: rain delay coverage |
8/10
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
2.0
|
| PGA Championship: Final Round |
8/10
|
CBS
|
3:00-9:00pm
|
6.0
|
| Ironman World Championship |
8/10
|
NBC
|
1:30-3:00pm
|
0.6
|
| World of Adventure Sports |
8/10
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.4
|
| U.S. Swimming National Championships |
8/10
|
NBC
|
4:00-5:30pm
|
0.5
|
