NASCAR & UFC Deliver One-Two Punch Saturday for FOX Sports 1
FOX Sports 1 leveraged an exciting day of NASCAR racing and the buildup and breakdown of one of the most-anticipated UFC Pay-Per-View events in history to an impressive top-10 mark in viewership on Saturday.
Saturday’s (2/28) NASCAR XFINITY Series race from Atlanta Motor Speedway, which saw Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano and 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick battle for the checkered flag, delivered 1,516,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1, basically flat with the series’ average on ESPN channels last season (1,539,000), and is the third most-watched non-NASCAR Sprint Cup event ever on FOX Sports 1 (last year’s comparable Week 2 race aired on ABC). The NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK Series race from Atlanta, which aired directly prior to the XFINITY race on Saturday, drew 1,149,000 viewers, up 7% from the last time a NCWTS race aired the same weekend (Phoenix, 1,073,000 viewers on SPEED in 2011).
Live NASCAR events on FOX Sports’ live streaming platform FOX Sports GO are off to a fast start this season with viewership up +258% vs 2014.
UFC 184: Rousey vs. Zingano Pay-Per-View Prelims on FOX Sports 1 drew 1,205,000 viewers, making it the third most watched UFC PPV Prelims on the network since launch in August 2013. FOX Sports GO streams for UFC 184 Prelims were +70% compared to the UFC 183 (Silva vs. Diaz) Prelims.
NASCAR and UFC programming combined to score FOX Sports 1’s seventh most-watched Saturday (6:00 AM – 6:00 AM ET) since launch, averaging 543,000 viewers.
The momentum continued into Sunday with NASCAR RACEDAY from Atlanta averaging 706,000 viewers at 11:00 AM ET, +45% from the show’s average last season when airing in the same time period (487,000). Coverage of Monster Jam Racing from Arlington, which followed NASCAR RACEDAY, was the most-watched Monster Jam event on FOX Sports 1 since launch (434,000 viewers).
On Friday (2/27), the FOX SPORTS 1 UFC 184 WEIGH-IN SHOW scored 222,000 viewers and 81,000 in the A18-49 demo, making it the second most-watched UFC WEIGH-IN SHOW ever on FOX Sports 1 in both metrics (behind UFC 168 Weigh-ins, 12/27/13, 275,000 viewers).
