Despite having a live telecast in the Indianapolis TV market for the first time since '50, the overnight rating for the Indy 500 on Sunday was down 5% from last year. ABC drew a 4.1 overnight for Alexander Rossi's win on Sunday, down from a 4.3 for Juan Pablo Montoya's win in '15. But this year's race telecast was up slightly from a 4.0 in '14, when Ryan Hunter-Reay hold off Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti during a six-lap shootout. This year also is up from a 3.8 overnight in '13 for Tony Kanaan's win under caution -- a figure that remains an all-time low for the Indy 500 since it began airing live in '86. Sunday's telecast peaked at a 4.8 rating at the end of the race from 3:15-3:30pm ET. The Indianapolis market drew a 33.6 local rating for the live telecast, up from a 12.9 last year when it aired on tape delay (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). In Indianapolis, Curt Cavin notes this was the first time Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials "allowed the live local showing" in the market "because all tickets were sold" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 5/31).
STRONG SHOWING: ABC/ESPN, which now has two more Indianapolis 500 telecasts before its current rights deal expires after '18, brought a heavy presence to the race. "SportsCenter" shot on site live Sunday for multiple hours around the race, which the net had been preparing for more than a year, according to ESPN Coordinating Producer Kate Jackson (Adam Stern, Staff Writer).
