Amazon’s Prime Video made history on Sunday when it exclusively streamed a NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time in the circuit’s history.
The Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first of a five-race summer NASCAR Cup Series package for Prime Video. Viewership is in, and the results look promising.
According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the Coke 600 averaged 2.6 million viewers on Prime Video, down 16% versus last year’s race on Fox (3.1 million viewers). A slight decline is to be expected when moving from broadcast television to a paid streaming service, but 2.6 million is a healthy number for NASCAR and Prime Video for its first ever race.
Per Karp, the median age for Prime Video’s broadcast of the Coke 600 was substantially lower than NASCAR’s typical median age on linear television. The median age for Sunday’s race was 56, six years younger than NASCAR races on traditional platforms. That stat is consistent with Prime Video’s other marquee live sports property, Thursday Night Football. Last season, TNF viewers were seven years younger on average than NFL viewers on linear television (48 vs. 55).
Of course, there is a bit of a catch. As Fox Sports analytics guru Michael Mulvihill pointed out on social media, while NASCAR gained some younger viewers, it lost significantly more older viewers.
Over time, that gap might shrink as younger viewers continue to watch in higher numbers and older viewers adopt new platforms. But it’s certainly a sacrifice for NASCAR in the interim.
Prime Video’s NASCAR Cup Series coverage continues this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.