The NHRA’s television woes have been a widely discussed topic over the last decade and particularly in the last few seasons, and recently, drag racing journalist Michael Knight reported via Competition Plus that for the third consecutive year, the NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series broadcasts on ESPN and ESPN2 have declined in the Nielsen ratings in all three categories – ratings, households, and average viewers.

This isn’t good news if you’re the NHRA or a brand that’s invested in the sport looking for a return on said investment by way of eyeballs in front of the television screen. And if you ask the majority of the drag racing community, they’ll likely tell you this comes as little surprise. For the diehard fans, the lack of a consistent television schedule is a crushing blow for the ratings, while the casual television viewers flipping through the channels are still few and far between.

It’s been written countless times but it bears repeating that, contrary to common thought, the NHRA foots the expense of airing its 24 NHRA Mello Yello national events and 16 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series shows on the ESPN networks, which is a polar opposite business transaction from that which ESPN has with major sports the likes of the NFL, MLB, the NBA, and NASCAR. Because these sports often deliver the highest ratings on television, they carry demand from networks and advertisers who want a piece of the pie, and that comes at a price for the networks, who pay a hefty sum for the rights to air their games and events. Due to this investment and the demand from the public viewing, these entities are top priority. In other words, they’re always live, on time, without pre-emption.

The NHRA, meanwhile, is a small fish in a big pond, with significantly less demand from viewers, and despite the large check that’s written to ESPN each year, the worldwide leader in sports wields the power to place it’s programming in a hierarchy, regardless of which way the money flows. 

What that’s led to is wildly inconsistent air times — often in the late night hours — and regular delays and pre-emptions from other programs. This has created quite a bit of anger, but the thing to keep in mind is that it’s not the NHRA’s fault, and for ESPN, it’s business, pure and simple.

Much like today’s job market where employers demand experience from prospective hires that can only gain that experience by having the job, the NHRA needs a quality in-demand product to warrant priority television, and that’s something that, to some degree, they can only gain by having priority television. It’s a perpetual cycle that’s difficult to win.

What this might suggest is the need for a strategic new game plan, perhaps centering around a move to another network or perhaps expanding on it’s current live ESPN3 broadcast to a more online focused (or even entirely online) format. As the digital age advances, more and more popular television programming is moving to the world wide web every day, but for the NHRA, the reach they need to maintain and grow their product may not exist just yet. 

ESPN currently boasts that it’s ESPN3/ESPNWatch channel is available to an estimated 50 million American households. With roughly 115 million households dotting the country, that’s 43 percent of homes with access to the service. Of course, having access to it and actually having it are two different things, as only those who subscribe to specific cable television and internet packages from providers who offer ESPN3 have access to it. We haven’t unearthed these numbers, but it certainly isn’t 43 percent of all homes.

Likewise, there are other networks, including the new Fox Sports 1 and Lucas Oils’ MAVTV that could potentially be suitors for the NHRA, but they too present cost, non-priority, and availability issues. True, it’s hard to replace the visibility that ESPN’s networks offer, regardless of what hour the coverage is aired, but there are viable alternatives, and as television moves to the web, new alternatives are certainly on the horizon.

Indeed, motorsports and television operate as a two-way street: it takes a great live product to entice viewers to tune in, and it takes good television to get more fans through the gates. One is a byproduct of the other, and for the NHRA, it all begins at the track, with its race cars, it’s racers, and the entertainment that it provides. Drag racing is an inherently live sport — it’s hard to convey the assault on your senses through even the best of television sets and surround sound stereo systems.

Does the NHRA need television to prosper? Absolutely. But again, it all begins at the track, with the product on the track.