Audience Analysis: NBCSN On Record Pace, Fueled By NASCAR, Notre Dame, F1

NBCSN is on pace for its most-viewed year ever. The cable net saw its most-watched Q3, and then saw its best-ever October and November viewership. The record viewership in the fall months has been fueled by several races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, as well as the net’s first-ever Notre Dame football game. Boston College-Notre Dame on Nov. 21 drew 1.99 million viewers, the net’s most-viewed college football game on record.

FAST LANE: F1 viewership across NBC/NBCSN/CNBC has now seen consecutive years of double-digit percentage growth. The three nets in ’15 combined to average 521,000 viewers, up 14% from 457,000 viewers last year and up 42% from 366,000 viewers in ’13. The 521,000 viewers also is up 26% from 414,000 viewers on Fox and Speed in ’12. Looking at NBCSN alone, which carried 13 of 19 races this season, the net averaged 418,000 viewers for live telecasts, up 9% from ’14 and the best for any F1 cable net coverage since ESPN drew 755,000 viewers in ’95. Meanwhile, the U.S. Grand Prix from Circuit of the Americas, which is rumored to be in jeopardy, again failed to top 1 million viewers this season on NBC. The race drew 889,000 viewers for its early November slot, up from 788,000 last year, but below NBC’s first crack at the race in ’13, which drew 1.38 million viewers. COTA’s debut on Speed in ’12 drew 688,000 viewers.

WARRIOR MENTALITY: Telecasts for Warriors games continue to lift many boats during the team’s record-setting streak to start the NBA season. Warriors-Suns last Friday drew 648,000 viewers on NBA TV, marking the net’s best game audience this season to date. Meanwhile, FS Southeast on Wednesday night drew a 2.7 local rating in Charlotte, marking the RSN’s best Hornets game audience since the ’14-15 season opener. The telecast also featured former NBAer Dell Curry having his jersey retired while his son, Warriors G Stephen Curry, looked on. The Warriors-Hornets game also set a streaming record for CSN Bay Area’s telecast. That helped CSN Bay Area Digital to its second-best month ever in terms of unique visitors, behind only December ’14.

NOTES: CBS’ Panthers-Cowboys, which drew 32.5 million viewers in the late afternoon window on Thanksgiving, is the NFL’s most-watched game this season to date....Lakers-76ers on Tuesday night, which saw the 76ers end their record-setting losing streak, drew a 2.8 local rating in Philadelphia, marking the RSN’s best 76ers game since Feb. 29, 2012....HBO's "Real Sports" is averaging 3.1 million combined viewers for premiere episodes and re-airs this season to date, which includes around 18 plays a month per episode. That figure is up 19% from 2.6 million viewers during the show's 20th season last year.

The charts below list final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. Figures for several telecasts on Fox, ABC and NBC were unavailable at presstime.