The USA Network portion of the NASCAR season began much the same way the TNT portion ended.
Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Iowa averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.86 million viewers on USA Network, per the Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is the official currency, and a 1.1 and 1.93 million per the prior panel-only methodology that NASCAR now reports for its races. Both figures mark a decline from last year’s 1.2 and 2.17 million for the same race on the same network.
NASCAR viewership on linear television has been consistently lower under “Big Data + Panel” than under the old panel-only metric, a trend that began in the Fox Sports portion of the season and continued into the TNT portion earlier this summer.
The only exception was the streaming-exclusive five-race package on Amazon Prime Video, for which the “Big Data + Panel” audience was 15% higher than panel-only.
NASCAR chose to stop reporting “Big Data + Panel” figures for its races after the Fox Sports portion of the season, returning to the old panel-only metric, but “Big Data” remains the official currency. The series is one of the only major sports properties that has not benefited from the shift to “Big Data + Panel” last September.
Unlike the previous linear races this season, which were available to stream direct-to-subscriber via Fox One or HBO Max, USA Network race coverage is only available through a cable subscription. (That does not count the in-car camera feeds that air on HBO Max.)
That is not a major change as far as NASCAR is concerned, as USA races did not stream on Peacock even when the network was part of NBCU. Nor is it likely to change soon. USA is in its first year since being spun off from NBCUniversal — along with a handful of other NBCU-owned cable networks — and its new parent company Versant has thus far prioritized authenticated streaming over the direct-to-subscriber model.
Ty Gibbs’ win delivered the largest non-Olympics sports audience of the year on USA Network. At the same time, it was the least-watched NASCAR season opener on USA since it began carrying races in the 2022 season, both on a “Big Data” and panel-only basis. (Note that the panel-only figure is virtually even — 1.929 to 1.930 million — with the 2022 opener at Road America.)
In other action from Iowa, the corresponding O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race averaged a 0.59 and 1.02 million on CW — marking the most-watched edition of the race, which went on hiatus from 2020-23, since 2018.
