In its return to linear television, NASCAR’s recent “Big Data” lift went in reverse.
Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Sonoma (Ca.) averaged 1.8 million viewers on TNT and truTV, per the Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is now official currency, but 1.9 million per the old panel-only metric that NASCAR is publicizing for its races — marking the first time since the previous race on linear television in May that the “Big Data” figure trailed its panel-only equivalent.
For the five intervening races, all of which aired on streaming service Prime Video, “Big Data” outpaced ‘panel only’ by an average of 15% (2.3 to 2.0 million).
The Prime Video races may prove to be the exception to the rule, as Nielsen’s shift to “Big Data + Panel” has not otherwise provided any meaningful benefit to NASCAR viewership. “Big Data” trailed panel-only during the Fox Sports portion of the season (3.4 to 3.34 million), at which point NASCAR stopped reporting the those numbers and began publicizing its viewership using the old standard.
Last season, “Big Data” provided only a negligible 0.08% lift at a time when other leagues were experiencing more pronounced increases.
“Big Data + Panel” integrates data from smart TVs, set-top boxes and select providers’ first-party data (including Amazon) with the traditional Nielsen panel. The new methodology — which rolled out last September — has generally lifted sports viewership, but NASCAR is among the exceptions. There is no definitive explanation as to why NASCAR viewership on linear television would be disadvantaged under “Big Data.”
Regardless of the methodology, last week’s race increased double-digits from last year’s TNT Sports opener — a weather-delayed Saturday night race from Atlanta — rising 10% under “Big Data” and 19% under panel-only. The audience peaked during the 6:15 PM ET quarter-hour at 2.2 million under “Big Data” and 2.5 million under panel-only. Note that the race faced competition from the FIFA World Cup.
The corresponding Xfinity Series race averaged a panel-only audience of 1.1 million on CW, up 18% from last year.
