Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Ferrari successfully defended its Le Mans success with a second consecutive victory, this time with the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen. United Autosport came out on top in LMP2 with Oliver Jarvis, Nolan Siegel and Bijoy Garg. Manthey EMA Racing won in LMGT3 with Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin. NASCAR held its first Cup race in Iowa. There was World Superbike action. Some Australians returned to their day jobs. IndyCar announced its new television partner and then some, and that news captured much of my attention.
You Got the Money, Now It is Time For Results
I have a rule that I will not talk about the next year's calendar until we get to July. We must get through half of a year before we can start looking to next year. It is healthier. However, IndyCar announced its 2025 calendar on Thursday morning along with the news IndyCar would have Fox as its broadcast partner for the 2025 season. IndyCar and NBC had an exclusive partnership dating back to 2018, and IndyCar had a relationship with Comcast dating back to 2009 when the series moved to Versus for a majority of its races.
This is a significant change for IndyCar. Fox has made the commitment to show every race on network television in 2025 as well as showing both Indianapolis 500 qualifying days in network windows. Practice and qualifying sessions will be broadcasted on Fox Sports 1 or Fox Sports 2, and Indy Lights will have majority of its races shown on Fox Sports 1.
IndyCar was a big winner from this television bidding war. At the start of 2024, it was difficult to imagine IndyCar would have two major networks offering practically every race being broadcasted over network television. It would have been realistic to expect some sort of cable or streaming aspect of the broadcast package. That is how it has been for IndyCar's modern existence.
Instead, every race will be on Fox, and the series will make $40 million per year in this broadcast partnership.
It looks great on paper, and the series should be pleased, but now that it has its money, it is time to get results.
Money is part of the problem. The other part is viewership. One can increase the other. We aren't sure if the reciprocate is true.
For all the network television windows IndyCar will have and for all the extra money the series will make on this new contract, we need to see more. It is great that 17 races will be on Fox, but if the viewership remains stagnant, it will be difficult to call this a success. It will be even tougher to get an increase in rights fees next time around.
IndyCar has one big race and the rest get around one million viewers when on network television. That has been the case for the better part of 20 years. Whether it was on ABC/ESPN or NBC, a million viewers was the benchmark. It never rose higher than that. IndyCar didn’t get a greater pay day because of growth, it got a greater pay day because a million viewers became more valuable in this media landscape. It is dangerous to gamble that will remain the case going forward.
At some point, it is not the broadcast partner that is the problem. The series should already recognize the broadcaster can only take you so far.
It is one thing to make the races available. In terms of exposure and general awareness of the series, that is more than just showing races in 2024. We just spoke last week about the importance of a docuseries that takes viewers behind the scenes, but which more importantly exposes new viewers to the series. Formula One exploded because of something other than the races. It will be great that every race will be on the same network in 2025, but history tells us it will take more than that to significantly increase viewership.
This is the same playbook IndyCar has been using for the last few years. It is just doing it with a brand new broadcast partner. Every race on network is fantastic, but two seasons ago 14 of 17 races were on NBC. Two races were on USA and Toronto was a Peacock exclusive race. Last year, 13 races were on NBC with an extra on USA. Average viewership was up 2% in 2023 compared to 2022 despite one fewer network race.
Three or four non-network races aren't torpedoing IndyCar’s average viewership. Having the races on network would definitely help the average, but those races weren't what was holding IndyCar back. It needs greater cultural relevance and cachet with the average adult. If you want that, it requires much attention beyond the races themselves.
We have this new contract. We have every race on network television. What does success look like for this next contract? We all think it will be better now with every race on Fox, but what is the number we can say where it is clearly better?
The Indianapolis 500 inflates the numbers. While the average IndyCar race had about 1.32 million viewers in 2023, remove the Indianapolis 500 from that total and the average drops to 1.094 million. That is where IndyCar beyond the month of May has been living for two decades or so. At some point that average must improve. What is success over the next three years?
We can celebrate all the network races we want, but if the viewership remains flat, has IndyCar really won?
Is it realistic to shoot for an average of 1.5 million viewers outside of the Indianapolis 500? It might sound like a lot but it is distance from where IndyCar is at in this moment. Increasing to 1.25 million in three years is something, but it is only an increase of use north of 150,000 viewers. That isn't a spectacular gain.
That is what is important for this next contract. It must be more than what is gained on paper. There must be some kind of results from this deal that are notable. If in three years the average viewership outside the Indianapolis 500 is around 1.15 million viewers, there should be hesitation to celebrate. That is inches gained when IndyCar needs yards.
IndyCar hates being compared to Formula One, but Formula One is now practically level on average viewership despite Formula One's average being around 671,000 viewers in 2019. IndyCar's average in 2019 was 1.108 million viewers, and that is including the Indianapolis 500 that year.
In five years, Formula One has caught up. It didn't catch up because all the races were on network television. It didn't catch up because the championship went undecided into the finale every year. It didn't catch up because there are on average nine different drivers winning a race each season and hundreds of passes in each race. It didn't catch up because there is an American driver that is competitive and winning races. It caught up because it connected with people and give people a reason to care about those competing. It did that through an avenue that wasn't the race broadcasts.
IndyCar will have the races in a good spot. There should be no complaints about difficulty finding where the races are being broadcasted, but IndyCar needs substantial results over this contract. That will require more than just 17 race broadcasts in an accessible location.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Le Mans, but did you know...
Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Iowa, his first victory of the season. Sam Meyer won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season.
Toprak Razgatlioglu swept the World Superbike races from Misano. Adrián Huertas swept the World Supersport races.
Broc Feeney swept the Supercars races from Darwin.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar will be at Laguna Seca.
Formula One returns to Barcelona.
NASCAR moves to Loudon.
One week after Le Mans, IMSA has a six-hour race at Watkins Glen.
Super Formula will have an all-domestic affair at Sportsland SUGO.
