FOX Sports Delivers Viewership Increase for First Half of NASCAR season

FOX Sports wrapped its half of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday averaging 4,076,000 viewers, up +2% from last year’s 3,980,000, excluding weather-impacted races both years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Among 11 FOX Sports 2019 races directly comparable to 2018 events, six scored viewership increases. For the season, the Nielsen U.S. Household Rating was up +3% (2.44 vs. 2.37).

The top five markets for the first half of the season are Greensboro, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Richmond, Va., Charlotte and Indianapolis.

Sunday’s race from Sonoma Raceway delivered 2,478,000 viewers, up +6% from last year’s 2,334,000.

Digital and Social highlights from the first half of the season include:

Streaming:

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series average minute audience per race for the 2019 season up +37% over 2018
2019 Daytona 500 was most-streamed FOX NASCAR event ever (53K AMA, +10% over 2018 Daytona)
Two million fans streamed NASCAR programming on FOX Sports platforms in 2019, up +79% year-over-year

Social:

177 million video views of FOX NASCAR content across social platforms, up +51% year-over-year

Adding together streaming & social:

380 million digital consumption minutes for NASCAR content across FOX properties on streaming and social, up +80% year-over-year