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

9/27-9/28 Weekend GRC Ratings

While this most recent weekend's TV ratings for the GRC weren't as high as they were the prior weekend, they'd didn't fall too much.  Still, I was hoping for better given the 0.5 rating the prior weekend and the in show advertising they did for this weekend's show.  Additionally the race at the Dirt Fish Rally School was much closer to what I think Rallycross events should be--primarily dirt vs. primarily tarmac with the cool section coming through the old wood mill as an added bonus and character.  This was by far the coolest venue for the series this year.

Results wise it was Sverre Isachsen (Subaru), Joni Wiman (Ford) and part timer Brian Deegan (Ford) in third.  While the manufacturers title in GRC has long been awarded to Ford, the driver championship has bounced back and forth and now Mr. Wiman is now in the lead with his Olsbergs MSE Ford (Huntington, CA based).

This weekend's 0.4 rating equates to some 463,000 households and some 510,000 viewers.

NFL: Eagles-49ers (88%)	9/28	Fox	4:25-7:30pm	16.7
"Sunday Night Football": Saints-Cowboys	9/28	NBC	8:30-11:00pm	13.7
NFL: (regional)	9/28	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.1
NFL: (singleheader)	9/28	CBS	1:00-4:05pm	8.2
"Football Night in America"	9/28	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	4.4
College Football: (regional)	9/27	ABC	3:30-7:30pm	4.0
"Fox NFL Sunday"	9/28	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.4
College Football: Notre Dame-Syracuse	9/27	ABC	8:00pm-12:00am	2.8
College Football: Arkansas-Texas A&M	9/27	CBS	3:30-7:30pm	2.8
"The NFL Today"	9/28	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.3
Ryder Cup: Day 3	9/28	NBC	7:00am-1:00pm	1.8
Ryder Cup: Day 2	9/27	NBC	3:00am-1:00pm	1.7
PBR: Kawasaki Strong Battle at the Bay	9/28	CBS	5:00-6:00pm	1.5
College Football: Stanford-Washington	9/27	Fox	4:15-7:45pm	1.2
Ryder Cup: Day 2 (taped)	9/27	NBC	1:00-6:00pm	1.1
MLB: Yankees-Red Sox	9/27	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	1.0
"College Football Countdown"	9/27	ABC	3:00-3:30pm	0.9
College Football: Baylor-Iowa State	9/27	Fox	8:15pm-12:00am	0.9
"College Football Today"	9/27	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	0.7
"College Football Socreboard"	9/27	ABC	2:00-3:00pm	0.6
STIHL Timbersports Series	9/28	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.6
"College Football's Open Season"	9/27	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.4
"World of X Games: Adaptive Action"	9/28	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.4
Global Rallycross: Seattle	9/28	NBC	4:30-6:00pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season"	9/27	CBS	2:00-2:30pm	0.3
"Red Bull Joyride"	9/28	NBC	3:00-4:30pm	0.3

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9/20-9/21 LOORRS and GRC Weekend TV Ratings

Lots of good offroad motorsports events on Network TV this past weekend. NBC had two "live" GRC broadcasts from Los Angles where the results were Scott Speed (VW), Wiman (Ford), Block (Ford) on Day I and Rhys Millen (Hyundai), Block (Ford) and Wiman (Ford) on Day II. CBS meanwhile had a LOORRS broadcast of the Pro 2 and Pro 4 races from the Wild West Motorsports Park in Sparks, NV.

The Saturday broadcasts had an easier time of it only having to compete against a smattering of fairly uninteresting college games while the Sunday GRC show had to face off against the NFL. True to form the Saturday LOORRS and GRC shows pulled significantly higher ratings at a 0.5 for each (578,000 households and about 636,000 people viewing)than the Sunday GRC event that only generated a 0.3 rating (347,000 households and about 381,000 people viewing). Of note is that the weekend's NASCAR event from NH on Sunday saw a 2.2 rating (3.1 million viewers) and the Tudor United Sports Car Championship event at Circuit of the America's drew a 0.9 rating (1.1 million viewers), both running against the NFL.

From a historical perspective the 0.5 ratings for LOORRS and GRC on Saturday represent recent highs for both series and solid improvements from recent shows. The result is not however outside the "norm" for either series and can be considered a good but not spectacular result and at least the Sunday GRC broadcast beat out the European cycling event and canned golf preview show!!

TELECAST DATE NET TIME (ET) RATING
NFL: Broncos-Seahawks (89%) 9/21 CBS 4:25-7:30pm 16.9
"Sunday Night Football": Steelers-Panthers 9/21 NBC 8:30-11:30pm 12.3
NFL: (singleheader) 9/21 Fox 1:00-4:05pm 12.2
NFL: (regional) 9/21 CBS 1:00-4:25pm 11.1
College Football: Florida-Alabama 9/20 CBS 3:30-7:00pm 5.1
College Football: Clemson-Florida State 9/20 ABC 8:00-11:30pm 4.9
"Football Night in America" 9/21 NBC 7:30-8:15pm 3.3
"Fox NFL Sunday" 9/21 Fox 12:00-1:00pm 3.2
"The NFL Today" 9/21 CBS 12:00-1:00pm 2.9
College Football: Oklahoma-West Virginia 9/20 Fox 7:30-11:30pm 1.9
College Football: (regional) 9/20 ABC 3:30-7:00pm 1.7
MLB: (regional) 9/20 Fox 1:00-4:45pm 1.5
"College Football Today" 9/20 CBS 3:00-3:30pm 1.2
Tudor United SportsCar Championship:
Lone Star Le Mans (COTA) 9/21 Fox 5:00-6:00pm 0.9
PBR: Cooper Tires Desert Showdown 9/20 CBS 2:00-3:00pm 0.7
EPL: West Ham-Liverpool 9/20 NBC 12:30-2:30pm 0.7
Boxing: Fight Night 9/20 NBC 3:00-5:00pm 0.6
"World of X Games: Best of Austin" 9/20 ABC 2:00-3:30pm 0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series 9/20 CBS 1:00-2:00pm 0.5
"Premier League Goal Zone" 9/20 NBC 2:30-3:00pm 0.5
Global Rallycross 9/20 NBC 5:00-6:00pm 0.5
STIHL Timbersports Series 9/21 ABC 5:00-7:00pm 0.5
Diamond League Track & Field 9/21 NBC 2:00-3:00pm 0.4
"World of X Games: Big Wave Hellmen Preview" 9/21 ABC 4:00-5:00pm 0.3
Women's Rugby World Cup 9/21 NBC 3:00-4:00pm 0.3
Global Rallycross 9/21 NBC 5:00-6:00pm 0.3
"Road to the Ryder Cup" 9/21 NBC 1:30-2:00pm 0.2
Cycling: Vuelta a España 9/21 NBC 4:00-5:00pm 0.2
.

Down Weekend for Offroad Motorsports on Network TV...

Well, that's not progress...

Global Rallycross has not generated any appreciable growth over the course of '14 and has actually regressed in terms of ratings over the past two events and LOORRS has continued its regular broadcasts on CBS but its ratings have stayed flat to marginally down over the past two years.

Now I'm not on the inside of the companies paying for these events to be broadcast on Network TV so in truth I really have NO IDEA whether perhaps even at the current ratings levels that their producers are happy.  It is certainly a possibility that NBC and CBS sell their airtime to Lucas and GRC at a low enough level that they can sell their advertising spots at a rate for them to turn a profit...maybe.

What I can tell you is that I've been tracking these ratings on a general basis for a number of years now, dating back to the old CORR days.  While its been great to see offroad motorsports (primarily short course) appear on network TV on a regular basis over the past few years, the ratings generated from it have not moved.  We now regularly see short course, Baja events, rallycross, stage rally, motocross, Best in the Desert and more on Network and near network (see NBCSN, CBS Sports, etc.) sources yet the broadcasts most accessible to the America public (the over the air broadcasts) have stagnated in terms of ratings/viewers.  There is a core audience here and these broadcasts are reaching this audience but they aren't bringing in a growing audience of viewers.  You can debate the reasons but the facts by now are fairly clear.

There is a lot to be said for the inconsistency and "random" nature of these broadcasts.  If you are a NASCAR fan you KNOW that pretty much every weekend there is a race (which is often EVERY weekend) you can sit down around 1PM Eastern and catch the race.  If you are a football fan (college or NFL) you KNOW that every Saturday or Sunday the games will be on during the season.  For offroad motorsports??  Well, there you can look up the schedule on any one of a dozen or more websites for the various series and see if the event is shown on a Saturday or a Sunday, early afternoon, late afternoon or if it will be another month before another broadcast is available (often the case), is it on CBS?  CBS Sports?  MavTV?  Do I get MavTV?.  This is just the nature of the beast with offroad racing at this point.  Its not NASCAR with live events taking place every weekend at the same time on the same channel and thus it has an uphill battle to to fight just in terms of getting casual viewers to watch.

For this past weekend, GRC saw a 0.3 rating on NBC which tied for the weekend's lowest rated sporting event on Network TV with the LOORRS which it faced off directly against in the same time slot over on CBS from 2-3PM Eastern.  Perhaps you could make the argument that either show's ratings would have been higher if they hadn't been facing off against one another and instead were competing for viewers against say...gymnastics or golf or the like.  Certainly I've made a case here before of combining the audiences of offroad motorsports that are shown at the same time, so I'll do so here again for the sake of positivity.  During this time period there was a combined 0.6 rating for offroad motorsports on Network TV equating to some 694,000 households and 763,000 people watching offroad racing of some kind during this period.  Now this doesn't help the advertisers who paid only to be on one broadcast or the other and got their message in front of "only" about 350,000 households and 382,000 people during this time.

The NBC broadcast of the Red Bull Hare Scramble which followed the GRC broadcast beat out both of the "car" oriented race shows with a 0.4 rating grabbing about 460,000 households and 510,000 viewers.  This holds true to another long term trend that I've noticed--whether its motocross, supercross or various Red Bull motorcycle events, they do usually out-rate the offroad "car" racing.  I would have a tendency to attribute that to the larger fan/participation rate of motorcycle racing.  While an extreme minority of people have ever driven in a SCORE, BITD, or Rally event of any kind you can show up in nearly any geographic region in the country on any weekend and find a number of motocross tracks, hare scrambles, trail rides, etc.  The sheer participation rate of offroad motorcycle riders dwarfs that of any combination of desert/shortcourse/rally drivers by what has to be many magnitudes and thus its a lot easier to find an individual who is familiar with jumping their motorcycle through the woods or over a tabletop, flipping through the channels and staying with one of these shows than it is short course, desert or rally.  That said, these motorcycle event ratings are never MASSIVELY better than these other offroad broadcasts...just marginally better...

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
"World of X Games: Women of Action"	7/26	ABC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	7/26	ABC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	7/26	CBS	2:00-3:00pm	0.3
PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Third Round	7/26	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	0.4
Guinness Int'l Champions Cup: Manchester United-AS Roma	7/26	Fox	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
"UFC on Fox 12": Prelims	7/26	Fox	6:00-8:00pm	0.8
"UFC on Fox 12": Robbie Lawler-Matt Brown	7/26	Fox	8:00-10:00pm	1.6
Global Rallycross	7/26	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.3
Red Bull Hare Scramble	7/26	NBC	3:00-4:30pm	0.4
Asics World Series Of Beach Volleyball	7/26	NBC	4:30-6:00pm	0.5
"Road to the PGA Championship"	7/27	CBS	2:00-3:00pm	0.5
PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Final Round	7/27	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	1.8
Tour de France review show	7/27	NBC	2:00-3:30pm	0.4
Asics World Series Of Beach Volleyball	7/27	NBC	3:30-5:00pm	0.6
Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Haskell Invitational	7/27	NBC	5:00-6:00pm	0.8

Global Rallycross TV Ratings 7/20/14

Benefiting from Red Bull's ongoing relationship with NBC, the NYC round of the 2014 Global
Rallycross season appeared as a live broadcast at 2PM this past Sunday.  This is the third time GRC has appeared on the primary NBC broadcast during the traditional network weekend sports block.  I am going to try and go back and see what the ratings were on these prior broadcasts (6/22 as a live broadcast and 5/24 on a delay).

The 0.5 rating seen below compares quite favorably to recent "offroad" oriented broadcasts on network TV.  First off, it did fairly well as compared to the rest of the weekend's sporting events, besting the UFC and Dew Tour shows while equaling the Tour de France broadcast.  The WNBA All Star game over on ESPN also drew a 0.5 though it is not reflected here.  GRC did fall a bit short of an XGames related recap and did not draw as well as some old guys golfing...but not many (any?) non-NASCAR motorsports do.

Also not shown here but broadcast over on ESPN in this same time frame was the NHRA's Mello Yello series which generated a 0.7 rating.  Which makes you wonder--the NHRA has been on the decline in terms of attendance, revenue, interest and ratings for some time with the series long rumored to be about to fold--how GRC and the other "offroad" motorsports survive on Network TV while the NHRA is relegated to ESPN or ESPN2.  Food for thought....

With each full rating point equating to 1,156,000 TV "households" being tuned into a broadcast, the 0.5 seen by the GRC show means there were some 578,000 "houses" watching the broadcast (which doesn't include the rebroadcast over on NBCSN on 7/23).  With a conservative estimate of 1.1 viewers per "household" this should mean that there were at least 636,000 individual viewers of this past Sunday's GRC event.  This is a bit ahead of the 0.4 ratings seen with the Mint 400 and AMA Motorcross events shown on the 7/5 weekend and significantly ahead of the 0.3 rating for the LOORRS broadcast that same weekend.

Update--
Prior GRC broadcast ratings:
6/22 Live from D.C. generated a 0.3, 347,000 households and an estimated 381,000 viewers
5/24 Tape Delayed from Barbados generated a 0.4, 462,400 households and 509,000 viewers

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
"World of X Games: 20 Years, 20 Firsts"	7/19	ABC	2:00-3:00pm	0.7
"The Open Championship Today"	7/19	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	1.2
"UFC's Road to the Octagon"	7/19	Fox	5:00-6:00pm	0.4
Tour de France: Stage 14	7/19	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.5
Golf: American Century Championship	7/19	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	0.6
"The Open Championship Today"	7/20	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	1.3
Dew Tour: Best of Ocean City	7/20	NBC	1:00-2:00pm	0.4
Global Rallycross	7/20	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.5
Golf: American Century Championship	7/20	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	0.7

Bryce Menzies Coming to GRC...

Saw this in a UNLV article today.  It appears as if Bryce has signed on with Travis Pastrana's racing team to run in the Global RallyCross events in '13.  Its a good fit for both as Bryce is also backed by Red Bull and has been a Dodge driver for some time as well.

It will be interesting to see how the GRC schedule fits with his short-course and desert racing schedule and if there is a conflict, which one gets dropped (I'm betting GRC).  Certainly the Menzies have the financial backing to support his effort and put him near the top of the field in terms of on site resources.  Bryce is no slouch behind the wheel either with time spent at O'Neil's Rallyschool and being declared one of the best drivers to come through that facility by its lead instructor.  It will be interesting to see what a full season (or nearly so) of time behind the wheel of the GRC Dodge Dart at a primarily an asphalt based series (if its in any way similar to the courses set up in '12) will produce for Bryce.

The other interesting part here is Bryce's interest in the Dakar.  Given that the winners (car and bike), on a combined points basis, of the Baja 500 and Reno 500 later this year will receive a free entry to the '14 Dakar for the first time, I'm betting that this is what Bryce is aiming for.  Additionally, I'm sure Red Bull would be a big fan of his entrance into the Dakar as a young, up and coming American racer.  Regardless, it should be a busy year for the Menzies crew trying to support a short course, SCORE, BITD, and now GRC efforts (with Dakar possibly thrown in for S's and giggles).  You certainly can fault them for sitting on their laurels!

UNLV Article...