Ratings Roundup: Fox’s Daytona 500 Viewership Up 5% Over 2016; TNT’s NBA All-Star Game Most-Viewed Since 2013

Sunday’s Daytona 500 on FOX reeled in an average audience of 12 million watched the race across the FOX broadcast network, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports GO, including 11.92 million on FOX alone. The 11.922 million viewers is up 5% over 2016’s average audience of 11.357 million, peaking at 14.031 million viewers from 6:15-6:30 PM ET. The race scored a 6.6/15 HH rating, which is flat overall compared to the 2016 edition. In all, 23.3 million viewers tuning in for all or part of the event.

Core NASCAR markets led the way with Greensboro, N.C., finishing first with a 17.5/31, followed by Greenville, S.C. (16.5/28), Indianapolis (14.4/26), Knoxville, Tenn. (12.7/22) and Jacksonville, Fla. (12.4/22). Markets that experienced the largest year-over-year increases include Austin, Texas (+111%), San Diego (+74%), Oklahoma City (+49%) and Norfolk, Va. (+47%). Yesterday’s race also saw significant gains in America’s biggest markets, including Chicago (+18%), Philadelphia (+32%), Washington, D.C. (+18%) and Atlanta (+20%).

FOX Sports GO delivered an average minute audience of 39,832, up +99% over last year’s 20,008, marking the best performance ever for a NASCAR event on FOX Sports GO. The DAYTONA 500 was the second-most talked-about event on social media Sunday, trailing only the Academy Awards, with 443,000 people posting about the race on Twitter or Facebook.  Two million people posted or engaged socially regarding the DAYTONA 500…

…North of the border, an average audience of 534,000 tuned in to TSN’s comprehensive DAYTONA 500 coverage – up 20% over last year, and the largest audience since 2013 (according overnight data from Numeris). Audience levels peaked at 674,000 viewers at 5:54 p.m. ET as Chase Elliot, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Blaney jockeyed for the lead with only 43 laps remaining. Overall, more than 2.3 million individual Canadians watched some part of Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 coverage on TSN, up 35% compared to last year…

…In addition to the main event on Sunday, FOX Sports saw viewership increases across numerous race events and ancillary programming airing on FS1. FOX Sports programming and FS1 combined during Speedweeks for a +14% average viewership increase over 2016 (463,000 vs. 405,000). FS1’s average audience was up +28% (276,000 vs. 215,000) over last year, marking the highest average audience for Daytona Speedweeks in FS1 or SPEED history.

Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY SERIES race on FS1 scored a +6% increase in average viewership (2,253,000 vs. 2,120,000) and a +8% bump among A18-49 (513,000 vs. 474,000) over the 2016 race. The NASCAR XFINITY SERIES race propelled FS1 to the top spot for total viewership among all cable channels during the time period.  FS1’s post-race show was the second most-watched post-event show in network history with 2,130,000 viewers, behind only the Oct. 22, 2016, National League Championship post-game show. Saturday’s NASCAR RACEDAY-XFINITY, FS1’s dedicated pre-race show for the NASCAR XFINITY SERIES, was up +8% in average viewership over last year (1,175,000 vs. 1,090,000).

NASCAR RACEDAY, FS1’s pre-race show that aired Sunday before FOX NASCAR SUNDAY assumed pre-race coverage on the FOX broadcast network, enjoyed a +30% increase in average viewership (1,094,000 vs. 841,000) and a +42% increase in A18-49 over 2016 (324,000 vs. 228,000).  Sunday’s NASCAR RACEDAY was the most-watched in FS1 history that did not immediately precede a race on FS1, and was the seventh most-watched NASCAR RACEDAY episode overall. Sunday’s FOX NASCAR SUNDAY pre-race show, airing immediately before FOX broadcast network coverage of the DAYTONA 500, posted 6,141,000 viewers, up +16% over last year’s delivery of 5,290,000 viewers.

The 2017 DAYTONA 500 was the most-streamed NASCAR event ever on FOX Sports GO, followed by the 2016 season opener.  Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 scored a +88% increase over 2016 in streams, a +97% increase in average minute audience, a +107% bump in minutes streamed and a 59% increase in unique streamers.

Thursday’s DUEL AT DAYTONA, the pair of qualifying races that set the starting order for the DAYTONA 500, drove FS1 to the top spot among cable sports networks in prime time, with an average of more than 2.5 million viewers. While average viewership was off 2% over 2016, an increasingly younger audience tuned in for the Duel, with Adults 18-49 up +7% over 2016 (738,000 vs. 689,000). THE DUEL AT DAYTONA: Thursday’s NASCAR RACEDAY pre-race show scored 604,000 viewers, up +15% from 2016 (527,000) and up +7% among Adults 18-49 (149,000 vs. 139,000).

NASCAR RACE HUB averaged 214,000 viewers among its regular episodes during Daytona Speedweeks, up +15% percent over 2016’s Speedweeks (186,000), and scoring some of the most-watched episodes in series history. This year’s Speedweeks marked NASCAR RACE HUB’s most-watched during the two weeks preceding the DAYTONA 500 since 2013, when the program aired on FOX Sports’ SPEED.

Despite an -8% decline in average viewership (1,314,000 vs. 1,435,000) year-to-year for Friday’s NCWTS race, FS1 posted positive trends in the younger demographics year-over-year, up +37% in viewership among A18-34 (108,000 vs. 79,000) and +56% among M18-34 (67,000 vs. 43,000) over 2016.

Thursday’s REFUSE TO LOSE documentary, a look back at Jeff Gordon’s first Daytona 500 win in 1997, which debuted on FS1 following the network’s coverage of the DUEL AT DAYTONA, was the most-watched documentary in FS1 history with 829,000 viewers.

The DAYTONA 500 was the second-most talked-about event on social media Sunday, trailing only the Academy Awards, with 443,000 people posting about the race on Twitter or Facebook.  Two million people posted or engaged socially regarding the DAYTONA 500.NASCAR was the most popular section on FOXSports.com on Sunday, with 450,000 unique users, a +13% increase over 2016 (450,000 vs. 409,798). Page views for the DAYTONA 500 were up +81% (4,832,941 vs. 2,669,555) over 2016, while page views for the entire week leading into the race were up +80% (12,822,233 vs. 7,131,747).  One in three visitors to FOXSports.com consumed NASCAR content on Sunday, with users averaging 9.2 minutes on the site…

…Turner Sports’ coverage of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game presented by Kia from New Orleans averaged 7.8 million total viewers to deliver the most-viewed NBA All-Star Game telecast since 2013. Last night’s live game coverage across TNT and TBS – peaking with an average of 8.5 million total viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET – is up 3% in total viewers over last year’s event (according to Nielsen Fast Nationals).

The night prior, TNT’s coverage of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night averaged 5,627,000 total viewers, up 1% vs. 2016.  The telecast peaked with an average of 6.8 million viewers from 9:45-10 p.m.

Collectively, Turner’s coverage of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game and the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night combined to deliver the two most-viewed sports telecasts of the week across all of television (broadcast and cable).  State Farm All-Star Saturday Night also netted the highest-rated program of the night across all of television, based on metered market delivery.

Coverage of Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game across Turner’s TV Everywhere platforms garnered double-digit growth with video views up 46% and total video consumption up 37% vs. 2016.

Top five local market ratings for the 2017 NBA All-Star Game – Oklahoma City (10.9 U.S. HH Rating), San Francisco (10.3), Cleveland (10.3), New Orleans (9.2) and Memphis (8.5). Top five local market ratings for State Farm All-Star Saturday Night – Cleveland (7.5 HH rating), New York (5.4 HH rating), San Francisco (5.3), Las Vegas (5.0) and Washington, D.C. (4.9).

…NBC Sports’ primetime presentation of the 2017 NHL Stadium Series on Saturday on NBC, featuring the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field, was the most-watched NHL regular-season game in three years, excluding Winter Classics.  The Penguins’ 4-2 win against the rival Flyers (8-11 p.m. ET) averaged 1.917 million viewers, up 13% vs. last season’s primetime NHL Stadium Series matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche (1.698 million; 2/27/16), and was the most-watched regular-season non-Winter Classic game since the 2013-14 season (PIT-CHI; 2.759 million; 3/1/14). The game delivered a 1.12 household rating, up 17% vs. Red Wings-Avalanche (0.96). Locally, the Penguins’ victory delivered a 16.3 rating in Pittsburgh, up 137% vs. the Penguins 2015-16 NBC regular-season rating (6.9). Philadelphia produced a 5.1 rating, up 12% vs. last season’s NBC average (4.6). NBC was the top network in both markets during the game. Digitally, the game set Stadium Series records for uniques (56,000) and live minutes (2.3 million).