Fox Sports’ NASCAR Cup Viewership Down 6%

Fox Sports saw a 6% viewership decline for its NASCAR Sprint Cup race package this season, as an increase for FS1 telecasts could not erase big drops seen by the Fox broadcast channel early in the season. Fox and FS1 combined to average 5.578 million viewers for 15 races, which excludes the Pocono race early last month that was rained out on a Sunday and run on a Monday. That figure is down from 5.925 million viewers last year for 15 races, which excludes the April Bristol race that began on Fox, but had a four-hour rain delay before airing on FS1.

Fox alone averaged 6.58 million viewers for its races this year, down 13% from 7.53 million last year. The net was hurt by early season drops for Daytona (-15%) and Atlanta (-28%). The Atlanta race also marked the lowest audience for the Sprint Cup Series’ second points race of the season since ’08. Meanwhile, FS1 saw a 6% increase in its second season airing Sprint Cup races. The net’s races averaged 3.79 million viewers, up from 3.57 million viewers last year. Austin Karp & Adam Stern/SBD