Ad sales for NBC's broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 are pacing significantly ahead of expectations, according to NBC Sports Exec VP/Ad Sales Dan Lovinger. NBC is airing the race for the first time on Sunday after picking up full-season media rights this season. Lovinger said that NBC has mostly been packaging Indy 500 assets with wider NTT IndyCar Series packages, and revenue has exceeded expectations by a "pretty significant" margin. That includes 18 new brands that did not advertise during last year's race on ABC. On top of the usual official series partners and automotive endemics, categories that are selling well include QSR, movies, consumer electronics, financial services, travel and telecommunications. Lovinger credited the cross promotion NBC has been doing with the Indy 500 and gains NBC has seen in ratings so far this season as helping sales. He added that there are a handful of brands advertising that right now do not have plans to advertise beyond Sunday's race, but those deals involve wider buys with NBC Universal's other properties. More than half of NBC Sports' expected ad sales revenue for the IndyCar season is tied to this weekend's race. Lovinger said, "Overall it's going great -- we're in fantastic shape. ... I don't mean to underplay our expectations. We had some pretty aggressive expectations relative to what we thought had been done in the past." Meanwhile, Lovinger said that ad sales for NBC Sports overall have been "terrific" in Q1 and Q2 to start '19 and he expects that to continue as talks start for the upcoming NFL season.
