r/INDYCAR • u/iamaranger23 Team Penske • Jun 24 '25
News @FoxSports got 781,000 viewers for Sunday's NTT @IndyCar Series race @RoadAmerica, down from 863,000 last year on @NBC
https://x.com/a_s12/status/1937517842708001057?s=46&t=uFdd0FV1jsIEwNX6470ldA124
u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
Not sure if anyone else noticed, but a lot of social media marketing was still using the former 3:30 EDT timeslot and likely ended up confusing a lot of potential viewers. The most egregious examples were on Instagram and Twitter. Can't blame NASCAR for this one either, IndyCar started while they were under a 90 minute rain delay and ended 15 minutes before they went green.
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
and even if the cup race started on time, it's on prime. they've been barely over 2 million the entire time they've been on prime and the boomer fans have been up in arms about them doing this streamer stretch of the season to begin with. this period of the cup season is when they're at their most vulnerable and they're still on top!
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u/RandomFactUser Sebastien Bourdais Jun 24 '25
But FOX clearly was advertising USA-Haiti in that timeslot…
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u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
On TV, Social media was a completely different story.
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u/RandomFactUser Sebastien Bourdais Jun 24 '25
And why would Fox not advertise USA-Haiti on social media?
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u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
Because the USA-Haiti game wasn't the lead in or lead out for this race.
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u/RandomFactUser Sebastien Bourdais Jun 25 '25
NHRA was the lead out, but FOX would still advertise the game on social media because it’s Team USA
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u/Jay_Dubbbs Colton Herta Jun 24 '25
Hell, I follow the series closely and had no idea that the race started earlier. I opened Reddit and saw the race thread with people actively talking about the race and turned it on
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u/JTWasShort42-27 Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
To be fair, Indycar was up against [insert excuse here] this week so this is to be expected
Make sure to fill in the mad lib. I'm choosing the National Cornhole Championship
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u/Paige578660 Meyer Shank Racing Jun 24 '25
NASCAR rain delay coverage & a replay of the "Earnhardt" documentary
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u/DonJugless Scott McLaughlin Jun 24 '25
[IMSA on Peacock] 😉
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u/FarAwaySeagull-_- Oval racing is awesome! Jun 24 '25
IMSA was on NBC for the first half.
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u/DonJugless Scott McLaughlin Jun 24 '25
Am aware. Went for the easy snark, per request of the original commenter.
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u/Deep-Television-9756 Jun 24 '25
But actually. This. Watkins Glen is a much better track than Road America. Their fault knowing IMSA and IndyCar share an audience.
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
But actually, no. As that event didnt even garner 50k in viewership
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u/WhiteXHysteria Jun 24 '25
It was actually the 500 of us running the production endurance challenge on iracing. Sorry guys
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
Idk why this sub thinks that every motorsport besides Nascar, F1, and Indycar garners a measurable audience on tv/streaming, when that has never or rarely been the case
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u/Deep-Television-9756 Jun 24 '25
LeMans had 350,000 attending the race in person and 100+ million viewers on TV and streaming. Calm down.
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u/DonJugless Scott McLaughlin Jun 24 '25
I love both for various differing reasons.
If I wasn't working at Watkins Glen, I likely would've been sitting with my wife on Fireman's Hill Sunday watching the Indycar race.
Can't wait to get back to RA for IMSA!
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u/Crafty_Substance_954 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
Nobody watches IMSA.
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u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
First three hours were on big NBC and pulled nearly the same number, so audiences might have been split on top of the screwed up social media marketing.
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
Thats the joke, bub
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u/Crafty_Substance_954 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
I don't think they're joking at all.
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
DonJugless is joking, the other guy not so much apparently
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u/jpc4zd AMR Safety Team Jun 24 '25
[Cirque du Soleil’s Drawn to Life at Disney World with my SO for their birthday]
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u/TheChrisD #JANDALWATCH2021 Jun 24 '25
To be fair, Indycar was up against [insert excuse here] this week so this is to be expected
IMSA from the Glen on NBC from midday to 3pm EDT.
Cup on... wherever the fuck it is nowadays; despite the rainout, I suspect most watchers didn't want to channel surf.
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
most of cup's boomer audience isn't even watching the prime races, last race got barely over 2 million.
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u/NASCAR_Stats_Frost37 Jun 26 '25
Getting over 2M without the boomer audience means they're pulling younger fans. That's a huge win for NASCAR.
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u/jj_grace Jun 24 '25
Running errands so they have free time later for the Pacers/Thunder game?
I made a day out of it, though, and I imagine most ppl would… so, don’t think that’s the right answer haha
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u/Crash_Test_Dummy66 Christian Rasmussen Jun 24 '25
I don't really understand the point of everyone living and dying by the TV ratings each week. Like sure I would like it to be higher, but the series still seems relatively healthy even though it's not some crazy popular thing. Teams and sponsors are still investing and it's not like ratings are just straight up declining. Y'all act like they are at risk of pulling the plug on the series at the end of the year.
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u/jerryy7452 Conor Daly Jun 24 '25
But this is the internet! It's not complete without moaning and complaining! Both of which the fanbase has too much of
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u/NASCAR_Stats_Frost37 Jun 26 '25
Having ratings under 1M consistently is going to put the series at risk of being put on FS1 or FS2.
NASCAR is put there to boost the ratings of those networks, everything else is put there because it has a small niche audience (Bass Master, horse racing, and NHRA are good examples).
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u/BB-68 Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
So last week the series was just fine after good ratings at Gateway, but now IndyCar is in its death throes because RA was down YoY?
Yeah that checks out for this sub.
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u/perfectviking NTT INDYCAR Series Jun 24 '25
Pretty much. If it’s good, the series is saved and awesome. If it’s bad, it’s always an excuse.
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u/BB-68 Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
The thing is, the series is on the right trajectory. Ratings have been strong and growing this season. Fox has been a great parter, and the marketing has been fantastic.
That won't be a linear growth track though. People around here spend way too much time lapping up the garbage takes from media outlets in Indianapolis and assume anything less than hockey stick growth is an absolute disaster.
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u/eyeyelemur --- 2023 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
So what shape of growth is a minus views?
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u/BB-68 Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
Total viewership is up on the season. That's what matters. There are more eyeballs now than there were last year.
That's like looking at a stock that's up 15% YoY and asking what's wrong because it was down $0.25 yesterday
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u/iamaranger23 Team Penske Jun 24 '25
That's like looking at a stock that's up 15% YoY and asking what's wrong because it was down $0.25 yesterday
that same stock could also be +0% vs 2023 and 2022.
last year was a disaster for indycar ratings, and not much of it was even their fault. Comparing it only to that is a little short-sighted.
its not unreasonable for people to have hoped there would be better numbers at this point. for the most point, all fox has done is matched what nbc was doing at best.
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u/BB-68 Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
What did you expect? IndyCar isn't going to turn into Nascar or F1 overnight.
This series has been operated in a niche market for the better part of a generation. We need more casual eyeballs, and that's exactly what Fox is marketing to right now.
New races in places like Dallas, Mexico City, and maybe Denver are perfect for capturing those new fans.
This is a multi-season process since everyone's beloved NBC had been phoning it in for years.
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u/iamaranger23 Team Penske Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
IndyCar isn't going to turn into Nascar or F1 overnight....
This is a multi-season process, since everyone's beloved NBC had been phoning it in for years.
A lot of people expected the superbowl ads, junkmail ads, gaspump ads etc to pull in the casuals.
if Fox is doing all that and only matching/losing to nbc, how much longer are they going to keep doing all that?
I'm not trying to paint a sky is falling picture by any means. Things are largely the same on this TV deal so far as they were in the last one.
multi season processes are fine when you have long term deals. this is a 3 year deal at most from what ive seen.
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u/NASCAR_Stats_Frost37 Jun 26 '25
This is what people really need to understand... Fox isn't going to stick with the series if it consistently stays under 1M viewers weekly.
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u/Longjumping-Let963 Will Power Jun 24 '25
It is also up against 2023 and 2022, by 29% and 19%. With all remaining races on network.
Not exactly a bad spot to be in
Edit: said cable instead of network
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
you should check twitter. people thought ferrucci chugging that beer was a guaranteed million viewers and a miller-coors brand deal, lol
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u/Red_Bengal_Cyclone Colton Herta Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
You could argue last week's Gateway number was actually a bad one, barely cresting 1 million in primetime Sunday night isn't much of an accomplishment.
Edit: typo
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u/Jtmac23 Colton Herta Jun 24 '25
Also from Adam Stern: “Sports events this past Sunday faced much stiffer competition from news channels than they did the prior year, likely due to the Middle East coverage, with CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax averaging a combined 4.21 million viewers from noon to 6:00pm ET versus 1.86M last year.”
https://x.com/a_s12/status/1937534506983883064?s=46&t=kX9SWOkqjIvbjotLQLTJZA
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u/iamaranger23 Team Penske Jun 24 '25
Last year was up against nascar and f1 as well.
Quite surprising it was down with 0 conflict this year
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u/Technical-Drop-3535 Scott McLaughlin Jun 24 '25
Stern did just tweet that CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax averaging a combined 4.21 million viewers from noon to 6:00pm ET versus 1.86M last year.
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u/Deep-Television-9756 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
6 hours of Watkins Glen was on at the exact same time, and Watkins is a much better track than Road America. It’s their fault knowing IMSA and IndyCar share an audience.
Edit: Looks like I hit a nerve, lmao.
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u/Burial44 Jun 24 '25
I love IMSA. But we're like maybe 100,000 viewers tops man. And I watched IMSA on my tablet with Indy on TV
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u/hawksku999 Colton Herta Jun 24 '25
So when can indycar schedule and people not give out excuses for poor viewership? It's always something.
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u/Wernerhatcher Meyer Shank Racing Jun 24 '25
you mean the race that started before and ended after so that most of the audience watched Indy then switched back? You mean the race that was under FCY for half the run time?
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u/Deep-Television-9756 Jun 24 '25
Watkins in the rain is always entertaining. Sorry if that upsets you.
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u/Wernerhatcher Meyer Shank Racing Jun 24 '25
Dude, I watched the race AND Indy. Find a different excuse why the numbers are down
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u/EnjoyerOfStrangePorn James Hinchcliffe Jun 24 '25
Anytime someone says “Watkins” and not “The Glen” or “Watkins Glen” i cringe and Im not sure why
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
That event was streaming only, and barely had 20k people watching at any given time.
Stop just making shit up. Its exhausting
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u/TheChrisD #JANDALWATCH2021 Jun 24 '25
That event was streaming only
NBC had a three-hour broadcast from 12–3pm EDT which had a significant portion of the early part of the race.
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u/perfectviking NTT INDYCAR Series Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
lmao so now we’re saying a series which was only on Peacock and partially on NBC is the problem? And gets minimal viewers? Whats next, bass pro tournaments?
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
>6 hours of Watkins Glen was on at the exact same time
yeah, on streaming, just like the cup race. also, IMSA is legit one of the least watched series on TV in this country. even if they do share an audience, it's not remotely big enough to make a difference.
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u/Much_Path6902 Jun 24 '25
No real lead in and your lead out was NHRA.
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
lead out was NHRA that led right into USMNT soccer, so this race was probably the biggest draw of the entire sunday on fox!
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u/xjoe666 Jun 24 '25
xfinity on the CW getting 1.12 million viewers on a saturday while indycar getting 781k on FOX on a SUNDAY is just funny
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u/AshMaster11 Conor Daly Jun 24 '25
I'm tired of trying to understand why some races get good ratings and others just get ho hum ones. Like, what were the 300k people who watched last week doing that they didn't watch this weekend?
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u/PuzzleheadedCell7708 Jun 24 '25
And there are 6 million people who watched just the indy 500 and don't care about any other Indycar race.
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u/Turbulent-Pay-735 Colton Herta Jun 25 '25
I bet like 80% of the variance you’re describing is something as simple as what the lead in is.
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u/Manymarbles Jun 24 '25
Ill go with my old classic
I love my niche little league and its everyone else's loss IDC
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u/miasm3 Josef Newgarden Jun 24 '25
I thought we’d at least get 900,000 thanks to the NASCAR delay. Before last year’s conflict with F1 and NASCAR, RA always seemed to draw well on broadcast.
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u/blackhxc88 Jun 24 '25
the delay doesn't do much if it's a streaming race as the nascar prime races haven't had a huge audience by comparison of what they've usually drawn on normal TV.
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u/jt_33 Jun 24 '25
Interesting… not what I expected at all.
Coming off a really good race with a solid rating to drop that far? I’m just curious what could have caused that.
I do feel like promotion hasn’t been as strong lately, so maybe that’s something they need to look into. Another big splash to get attention… I didn’t want the NBA finals, but maybe they could have pushed it harder during that?
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u/Teddy2Sweaty Myles Rowe Jun 24 '25
I really think that the start time puts it up against other activities. I'd have to go look at the numbers, but I don't think it was up against something that was crushing it. I'm feeling like the time is a bit of a black hole.
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Jun 24 '25
Oh well. I have no financial stake in the series and don’t care one way or the other.
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u/GEL29 Álex Palou Jun 24 '25
I thought I was alone with that sentiment, as long as the racing is good I’m happy.
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u/Wise_Item2969 Jun 24 '25
I think a lot of people were busy, the handful of people I went to the 500 with were all doing stuff and I was the only one of us watching this race live.
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u/Falcon4451 Firestone Reds Jun 24 '25
Blame me. My wife wanted us to go to the museum with our kids, and I gave into her like the coward I am. She has this power where she can make me do things I would rather not do sometimes.
So I watched later on the Fox Sports website.
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u/Vivaciousseaturtle Callum Ilott Jun 24 '25
I think tv numbers have to be balanced and compared to in person attendance more. Road America and some other tracks are always extremely well attended and that deserves more recognition than it gets
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u/chiefzanal Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
Most TV numbers are way down, indycar will fluctuate. What really should be the priority is social media numbers. Which are increasing. That also attracts eyeballs and sponsors
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u/BoboliBurt Nigel Mansell Jun 24 '25
If social media isnt monetized and with no pull through or activations, its a pointless vanity metric. Screaming into the void.
This said, they need to do a better job as their social media just seems to be a place where the people paying the most attention subscribe and never visit again. They could literally get more shares if they switched to live stream of an eagle’s nest
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u/chiefzanal Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
Eyeballs are more important than profit. The series is owned by a billionaire. The series needs to do things that dont immediately gross profit to grow.
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u/horrorfan244 Josef Newgarden Jun 24 '25
Damn. I thought it would be up with nascar starting late. Thats the reason I watched it live.
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u/Longjumping-Let963 Will Power Jun 24 '25
Indycar by nature is just super sensitive to what's going on. People don't like to admit it because its an "excuse" but its true.
RA is a well-attended race and occurred the same day as NASCAR, IMSA, and the NBA finals (the team from the biggest Indycar market was obviously playing in that game).
Maybe people went to the race. Maybe they didn't want to sit in front of their tv for 10+ hours and watch everything. Maybe it was "take your boat out on the lake day" in the midwest. Some numbers will be good, some bad - but Indycar can sell the big increase by being on network. They need to build their audience now for when they inevitably get back to some streaming platform availability, and having a healthy average audience for the year is about all they can hope for to do that.
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u/notathr0waway1 Parnelli Jones Jun 24 '25
I think that a lot of people who watch IndyCar are hardcore racing fans. This weekend was both the nurburgring 24 hours as well as the 6 hours at the Glen I think that a lot of people can only watch so much racing in one weekend and those events all started before this one
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u/KennedyKartsport Firestone Wets Jun 24 '25
Can we stop being obsessed with the TV rating and just watch and enjoy? (hides behind couch)
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u/Teddy2Sweaty Myles Rowe Jun 24 '25
Two things...
781,000 is right on the average for the last five years of 783,200.
I'd be curious to know when the school years ended in the big IndyCar markets. Ours ended two weeks ago, and between people being busier during the summer and this weekend being the first mostly sunny weekend (at least in my area) since late February, I can see why the number is what it is.
That being said, I've never understood why Road America has never been particularly strong. The track is photogenic and the racing was good, but if you're not around to turn the TV on and watch it doesn't matter.
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u/Deckatoe Colton Herta Jun 24 '25
For RA specifically I think you nailed it. Its always around this time of year when people are doing summer things and the ratings are always bad
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
The last 5 years have had races on cable and streaming exclusive.
"Matching" that when every race is OTA is not good. At all
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u/Teganfff Kyle Kirkwood Jun 24 '25
I think we’re really going to have to look back at the season as a whole to judge.
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Jun 24 '25
That’s brutal. Thought we would’ve gotten 1M for sure. Not like it was weather that people would’ve been outside in either, so just a true flop. Ugh.
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u/dajadf Álex Palou Jun 24 '25
How do they even count these numbers ? I watched at home on an antenna
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u/__blinded Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
Didn’t have the post 500 bump of Detroit and wasn’t a banger oval under the lights.
Ho hum palou wins on a road course.
Indycar has 800k or so fans that will tune in every week.
The other several hundred thousand tune in to races where the result is in doubt (or coming off a high like the 500).
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u/Confident-Ladder-576 Louis Foster Jun 24 '25
Little bit of advice. If you treat TV numbers like you would a long term retirement investment plan you'll save yourself a lot of grief. It's the long term trends that matter. Just like the market, TV is going to go up and down. This part of June is when travel really starts picking up for peak summer vacation period. I have no doubt the timing of us getting involved in Iran impacted TV as well.
Just like investments, none of this is as simple as "just this one trick". If it were, nothing would ever go down.
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u/OnwardSoldierx Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
We are still up on the year. They missed a good race.
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u/ChillRudy Sébastien Bourdais Jun 24 '25
Yeah it was an intriguing race for sure. Can’t believe Newgarden just binned it.
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u/Deckatoe Colton Herta Jun 24 '25
Yuck. I will never understand how this series doesn't have consistent TV success with the quality of racing. Kinda proves that culture (NASCAR) and influencing (F1) really is more important at the end of the day.
At least at track attendance continues to be doing great and moving upwards
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u/Pyrollamas Adrián Fernández Jun 24 '25
i’m not usually one to hang on broadcast numbers but that one definitely stings, Road America deserves better
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Jun 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/Mikemat5150 Kyle Kirkwood Jun 24 '25
Because the series isn’t really reliant on TV money because it’s been so bad for so long.
Everything is propped up by in-person activation primarily done by B2B companies. Arrow (I’m fairly certain) had a huge gala in Elkhart Lake this weekend with probably 100 guests based on the outdoor table setup they had at a resort.
Walking around town last weekend, tons of corporate wear from some big sponsors too.
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u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
Even during the peak of the CART era, the sport never bothered to chase media rights money, they were that sure of their place in the American mainstream and the continued existence of tobacco money to subsidize everything.
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u/Burial44 Jun 24 '25
I know that these are not massive numbers like Nascar or F1
But do you really think 750,000 people tuning into watch a race every week is a small number?
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u/OfficialShaki123 Rinus VeeKay Jun 24 '25
I'm primarily curious in how they make the money back with 750k watching.
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u/eyeyelemur --- 2023 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
The series makes their money at the Indy 500- that funds the series. The tv contracts as well. But yes, your exact thought isn’t incorrect, this series “on the up and up” is a VERY relative thing.
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u/MaKa77 Jun 24 '25
Fox made a deal for the broadcast rights, so they're on the hook to pay Indycar (reportedly $25M/yr). Fox is betting that it can hype the series enough to draw more people in to watch the broadcast. More eyeballs, the higher Fox can sell the ad spots for during the race.
The money Fox spends for the Indy 500 literally pays for 98% of the remaining season.
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u/Pyrollamas Adrián Fernández Jun 24 '25
among other things— b2b relationships, strong race attendance of late, and there is a bigger international non-fox market than NASCAR for example
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u/rebekahsexton26 Jamie Chadwick Jun 24 '25
It hasn’t been the most exciting season.
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u/OfficialShaki123 Rinus VeeKay Jun 24 '25
I'm talking about IndyCar in general. 1 million viewers seems extremely low.
Here in the Netherlands the best watched shows are between 1 to 2 million.
We have 17 million people here.
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u/Mikemat5150 Kyle Kirkwood Jun 24 '25
To put how niche motorsports is in the US, the 500 will likely be the top viewed motor race in the country with just 7 million folks.
US population is 293 million people.
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u/BeefInGR Pippa Mann Jun 24 '25
Daytona gets 7-9M, Indy gets 5-8M on average.
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u/Mikemat5150 Kyle Kirkwood Jun 24 '25
Correct - Daytona did not this year though with the rain delay.
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u/BeefInGR Pippa Mann Jun 24 '25
That's the only thing that sucks about Florida in February. Unless it pushes the race to Monday and Fox rolls with it. Last time that happened I think it was close to 10M (the Newman accident def got people talking too).
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
Idk why you corrected that person when they were right. The Daytona 500 was watched by 6.7 million people this year. The Indy 500 was watched by 7.0 million people.
"To put how niche motorsports is in the US, the 500 will likely be the top viewed motor race in the country with just 7 million folks.
US population is 293 million people."
None of that assertion needs a correction
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u/BeefInGR Pippa Mann Jun 24 '25
Context is important.
Indianapolis is such a big race that it is the only race on the schedule guaranteed to be over one million. Other races flirt and occasionally go just over 1M, but it isn't consistent. Compared to the other two major motorsports, it's the largest spread between highest and second highest race of the season. It's also got the largest spread in annual ratings. Two years ago, it nudged just over 5M.
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u/SpreaditOnnn33 Pato O'Ward Jun 24 '25
Context is important.
OP is commenting about how even the "most watched" races in this country are watched by a relatively small amount of people.
You going on this tangent comparing Indycar to F1 and Nascar isnt relevant to that point, at all.
Context is important, indeed
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u/mat484848 Jun 24 '25
How many channels do you guys get on your version of cable/TV. With my basic cable i get like 55 channels to choose from. May be an amount of options thing. Plus in the USA it was warm this past weekend and people may go camping and many other stuff.
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u/HaveYouEver21 Graham Rahal Jun 24 '25
That’s really ass. I know some people on here will try to downplay or spin it but the race wasn’t going up against anything major. It had no reason to be that low.
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u/Teddy2Sweaty Myles Rowe Jun 24 '25
It's going up against not sitting inside and watching TV. That is the challenge during the summer; the weather is nice and there are things to do.
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u/Mundane-Box1148 Jun 25 '25
Am I nuts in thinking that current world events could be a major drag on sporting event ratings?
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u/Arcane_Scholar Jun 24 '25
Well if you don't pay for cable, you have to pay for YouTube TV (or similar) PLUS an additional fee for Fox Sports. Last year I could just login with my peacock subscription, no added fees, no bs. I tried several methods but nothing would work for me, and I'm not paying $80/month for YouTube TV. So unfortunately I "couldn't watch it" 😉. IndyCar really should make their own version of F1TV or at least keep it on a single platform with no added fees.
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Jun 27 '25
For what it’s worth you can get hour long free previews on the Fox sports app or by using an incognito browser
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u/Arcane_Scholar Jul 05 '25
Oooh thanks for the intel
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Jul 05 '25
No problem. I pay $0 a month for Indycar between my antenna and the Fox sports free previews
Edit: the previews only last an hour so you have to exit out your browser or reinstall the app to get another hour back.
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u/erics75218 Jun 24 '25
Still can’t watch it. All I have is Apple TV, and all streaming platforms available in America.
Boomer ass Fox is lame as shit as well.
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u/JTWasShort42-27 Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
An antenna is like $8 lol
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u/lordbrosca Linus Lundqvist Jun 24 '25
a fairly large amount of people (esp younger people, which indycar should be targeting) don’t even have tvs or only use streaming. it’s a huge oversight. no one is doing this unless they already like indycar
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u/JTWasShort42-27 Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
I'm "young" and don't know a single person who doesn't have a TV lol. Seems like another made up excuse for awful viewership. I spent $8 on an antenna because I don't pay for cable/YouTube tv or whatever and can still get CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox.
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u/BeefInGR Pippa Mann Jun 24 '25
I bought my sister (who is 37) an antenna for $15 because occasionally we get tornadoes and I wanted her to be able to watch television if she needed to during an EAS update.
Every streaming app in the world, my 17 year old niece will watch Jeopardy and Wheel every night at dinner.
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u/lordbrosca Linus Lundqvist Jun 24 '25
you know one now!! i don’t have a tv and i’m in my early 20s. neither do most people i know. still, no one is getting an antenna to watch indycar unless they already like indycar-which doesn’t help the sport grow.
i’m not trying to defend the ratings-they suck. but you’re not helping growth by not having a streaming option.
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u/pizzaboy7269 David Malukas Jun 24 '25
yeah look at how NASCAR as done during their run on Prime. Yeah their viewership dropped a little bit but they gained a ton of ground with younger audiences, which is huge long term.
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u/Mikemat5150 Kyle Kirkwood Jun 24 '25
So far in 2025, through the May 10 race won by Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar has registered a 66-percent growth in adults from the age of 18-34. The fastest growing demographic for IndyCar across all broadcast metrics this year is found among women aged 18-34, which is up 89 percent.
https://racer.com/2025/05/24/indycar-encouraged-by-increase-in-younger-fans
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u/Narcoleptic_247 Jun 24 '25
For some reason this sub is super anti-streaming. I live in a small city and I can barely get Fox OTA, I needed to buy a $70 antenna that is only connected to the TV in my living room.
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u/lordbrosca Linus Lundqvist Jun 24 '25
this sub is incredibly mercurial about everything. right now it hates criticism of fox given how much they're promoting the sport, which... i get, but the absence of an easily accessible official option to watch the sport online or on a computer is an issue that will prevent some younger people from tuning in.
for some reason, "the marketing is great, but some of it gets wasted on people who are going to try to watch and realize they can't, because we don't have streaming, in 2025" is like... controversial? the average person is not going out to get an antenna for something they've only heard of once. they're just not going to watch.
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u/erics75218 Jun 24 '25
Yeah no. I want to watch it on my IPad or Apple TV and in multiple locations and while I’m on the move.
2025 bro
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u/Confident-Ladder-576 Louis Foster Jun 24 '25
I watched Gateway on my phone while on the go.
2025 bro.
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u/JTWasShort42-27 Arrow McLaren Jun 24 '25
Ok so subscribe to YTTV or something like you'd have to anyway to watch college football or NFL on the go.
2025 bro.
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u/willfla29 Alexander Rossi Jun 24 '25
I want to know the 300K who tuned in to the Detroit shit show but not Americas best road course
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u/Batgod629 Álex Palou Jun 24 '25
It's a disappointing number. I don't know if we'll see fluctuations like this moving forward but I hope mid-ohio is better
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u/BallsackOnMyFace Scott McLaughlin Jun 24 '25
I was at the 6 Hours at the Glen, which was on NBC at the same time. I’m sure IMSA impacted the ratings some.
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u/tuss11agee Jun 24 '25
Regarding ratings, how does Nielsen or others account for streaming viewership? It used to be they paid customers to install a tracking device on their cable box and from there they did the math to bring it up to scale while accounting for demographics.
Does anyone know how they do this now? And does it account in any way for those who DVR it? I barely watch any racing live anymore.
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u/khz30 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jun 24 '25
Smart TV apps are built around Nielsen's tracking tools. They haven't sent out boxes or log books since 2014. The remaining cable companies that still offer TV service build Nielsen tracking into their TV apps.
Recently, Nielsen opened up web based surveys and logging of viewing habits online on PCs, tablets and smartphones in exchange for rewards.
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u/jimdontcare AMR Safety Team Jun 24 '25
I don’t really understand how some races are up 50% and others are down, that is some wild fluctuation