IndyCar Race from Milwaukee Generates a 1.0 Rating

From IndyCar.com and ESPN PR ..

ABC’s telecast of the Milwaukee IndyFest Presented by XYQ showed an increase in national ratings and viewership over the same race in 2011.

Based on data numbers provided by Neilsen Media Research and ESPN, the race delivered a 1.0 household rating and 1,409,000 viewers -– an increase of 14 percent over 2011’s race, which was also televised by ABC. The start of the 2012 race was delayed 90 minutes because of rain. The rating is a 20 percent increase among households (1.0 vs. 0.8) from last year’s race.

Comments

[Scott]

I'm curious how much of the ratings increase is a NASCAR bump from people expecting to see pre-race coverage of the Nationwide race.

[billytheskink]

Given that the overlap between the bumped Nationbusch pre-race and the end of ABC's IndyCar coverage was about 30-35 minutes of a 2.5 hour broadcast, I'd doubt there was a tremendous NASCAR bump.

[GeorgeK]

The numbers may still be miniscule but the upward trend is encouraging.

[Scott]

billythesink,

Ratings are not simply an average over the entire length of the program. The peak rating is a considerable factor. TV networks can significantly manipulate the overall rating a program receives simply by overlapping a more popular program into that timeslot by just a minute or two.

That said if you just do the math a 15-20% bump in viewership from a huge increase in viewers over the last 20% of the race is quite possible given the relative size of the viewership of Indycar and the Nationwide series. I don't know what the Nascar factor was, but I highly doubt it was a non-factor. I'm not trying to throw a bucket of cold water on Indycar. I'm just curious given the rare circumstance of Indycar and Nationwide overlapping on the same channel.

[GeorgeK]

Regardless of how the bump occurred, the average viewer who hears of a rating jump may think, "maybe I oughta check out this here Indycar deal, might be worth a look."

Sometimes spin is a good thing!

Having said that with the rain delay last night I can't see a good TV rating coming for Iowa. And all the yellows? I thought I was watching NASCAR for a while.

[JimS]

I'm happy to see any rating that doesn't begin with "0."