{"id":740015,"date":"2026-06-16T07:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740015\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:29:19","slug":"nascar-ratings-continue-to-diverge-based-on-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740015\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR ratings continue to diverge based on methodology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the third time in as many weeks, NASCAR\u2019s ratings story depended primarily on the methodology used to measure the numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series race from Michigan averaged a 1.0 rating and 2.07 million viewers on Prime Video, per the Nielsen \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d metric that is the official currency, and a 0.9 and 1.81 million per the previous \u2018panel-only\u2019 methodology that NASCAR is now reporting for its races.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d figure, which peaked with 2.6 million in the 6:30 PM ET quarter-hour, increased a tick in ratings and a season-high 17% in viewership from last year\u2019s 0.9 and 1.77 million. But the panel-only audience, which peaked with 2.2 million, was flat in ratings and down 3% in viewership (vs. 0.9, 1.9M).<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR Michigan viewership, Nielsen \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d vs. panel-only<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nascarmichigan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"1458\" height=\"638\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1342991 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nascarmichigan.png\"  data-\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first three Cup Series races on Prime Video this season averaged 2.45 million on a \u201cBig Data\u201d basis, up 8% from last year (2.27M). For all three races, the \u201cBig Data\u201d figure outpaced its panel-only equivalent by a double-digit percentage. By comparison, the \u201cBig Data\u201d figure was slightly lower than the panel-only number for the nine Cup Series points races on linear television this season (all on Fox Sports).<\/p>\n<p>Michigan was the first of the three races in which the direction of the year-over-year comparison differed based on the methodology, with \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d up double-digits and panel-only down slightly. Note that it is Nielsen policy to compare this year\u2019s \u201cBig Data\u201d figures to last year\u2019s panel-only data, meaning that officially, viewership for the race increased about 10% from last year\u2019s panel-only 1.9 million to this year\u2019s \u201cBig Data\u201d 2.07 million.<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR opted after the Fox Sports portion of the season to cease reporting \u201cBig Data\u201d figures and return to publicizing its panel-only numbers.<\/p>\n<p>2026 NASCAR viewership, Nielsen \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d vs. panel-only<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nascarbigdatavspanelonly.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"1353\" height=\"724\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1342989 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/nascarbigdatavspanelonly.png\"  data-\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beyond the race itself, viewership for the Prime postrace show differed significantly depending on the methodology. The telecast averaged 1.10 million per \u201cBig Data + Panel,\u201d but just 591,000 on a panel-only basis.<\/p>\n<p>As previously noted, it is entirely possible that there would be similar differences between \u201cBig Data + Panel\u201d and \u2018panel-only\u2019 for other sports properties. The only reason it is possible to make these comparisons for NASCAR is because it is the only sports entity currently publicizing its panel-only figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time in as many weeks, NASCAR\u2019s ratings story depended primarily on the methodology used to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,126077,90795,82],"class_list":["post-740015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-on-prime-video","tag-nascar-ratings","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}