The Indy Racing League’s television viewership is up significantly across all its networks entering this Sunday’s season finale, thanks in large part to one tiny female, rookie sensation Danica Patrick.
Despite the large gains the league has made this year, the IRL has drastically changed its 2006 schedule in hopes of increasing viewership and ratings even more.
Riding the media wave generated by the 23-year-old Patrick, all three networks that televise the IRL saw big gains in 2005.
ESPN’s eight telecasts this year (its ninth will be Sunday) have averaged a 0.6 rating, a 50 percent increase over the 0.4 that the network garnered last year. ESPN2, which this year had one race compared with two last year, saw ratings increase 100 percent, from a 0.2 to a 0.4. And ABC, which this year had the rights to seven races instead of the nine it had last year, averaged a 2.0 rating, a 43 percent increase over a 1.4 in 2004.
| Picking up speed |
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| California’s Infineon Raceway will be the only West Coast stop for the IRL next year. |
| Network | 2003 (# of telecasts) | 2004 (# of telecasts) | 2005 (# of telecasts)* |
| ABC | 1.5 (10) | 1.4 (9) | 2.0 (7) |
| ESPN | 0.5 (4) | 0.4 (4) | 0.6 (8) |
| ESPN2 | 0.3 (1) | 0.2 (2) | 0.4 (1) |
| * Heading into the Oct. 16 season finale on ESPN. |
| Sources: ABC, ESPN and Nielsen Media Research |
“I think overall it’s been a good season for the series, but there’s no doubt about it, you’ve got lightning in a bottle with Danica,” said Kelly Laferriere, vice president of programming and acquisitions for ESPN. “It’s such a unique story line, and I think we’ve been able to capitalize on that and bring new people to the set, and as a result they realize that we’ve got some of the best racing that’s out there.”
Tag Garson, director of programming for ABC Sports, could not be reached for comment.
ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will televise the IRL through the 2009 season.
Despite the significant bump in ratings this year, the IRL recently announced that it is condensing its 2006 schedule, creating some consistency that it hopes will translate to even better TV ratings.
The IRL reduced its schedule to 14 races during a 25-week season, down from 17 races spread across 33 weeks this year. The result: California Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Pikes Peak International Raceway are gone in 2006, leaving two major West Coast markets, including Los Angeles, without a race weekend.
“We wanted to create appointment viewing, we wanted to avoid competition from the NFL and college football in the fall, and we wanted to create momentum coming out of the Indy 500, where in the past I don’t think we’ve been able to capitalize on that,” Laferriere said.
IRL President Brian Barnhart couldn’t be reached for comment.
Eric DeBord, a former IRL team owner and current president and CEO of Protential, a Chicago-based marketing firm, said that even though the move will limit sponsors’ ability to activate in major markets on the West Coast, it will create appointment viewing by adding consistency to the schedule. The end result, DeBord said, will be an increase in awareness and TV ratings.
“Unfortunately, they had to knock off a couple of West Coast races, which probably were preferred by sponsors, but I’m sure they felt their strategy was going to create greater awareness of the league, which should be their No. 1 goal,” DeBord said.
David Lurch, manager of motorsports for Shell Lubricants, which in 2002 acquired Pennzoil, a primary sponsor with Panther Racing since 1999, said making the sport relevant to more fans is more important than catering to sponsors’ desires to race in particular markets.
“Right now there’s no consistent week-after-week racing like in NASCAR,” Lurch said. “So I think this will be best for the sport. And this will be best for the sponsors.”
Pennzoil will not be a primary sponsor of Panther Racing in 2006, but Lurch said that decision was made well before the 2006 schedule was announced. He would not offer any further details except to say an official announcement can be expected in the next several weeks.
