Sports Management Academic Director Scott Rosner discussed NASCAR’s television viewership in Forbes.
Rosner said the 18-49 demographic is the most coveted viewership for advertisers. This group enjoys watching live TV, and has money to spend. However, NASCAR’s events are too long for the industry’s increasingly fragmented viewing experience, Rosner said.
“NASCAR itself has a format that is just not conducive to what younger audiences are looking for,” Rosner said. “The events take too long, and people’s attention spans are not what they used to be.”
NASCAR has recently made rules changes to adapt to the changing nature of how people enjoy sports entertainment. The auto racing association has experimented with dividing races into segments and rewarding drivers after each. “But it’s not like fans are coming back in droves because of it,” Rosner said. He encouraged NASCAR to invest in attracting a younger audience to the sport, to maintain sponsorships and advertisers in the long-run.
Read the full story in Forbes and learn more about the M.S. in Sports Management program at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies.
