ABC earned a 4.6 overnight Nielsen rating for live television coverage of this year’s rain-delayed Indianapolis 500, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. eastern time and 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. That was down 8 percent from a 5.0 rating last year.
Each rating point equals about 1 million households nationally.
Fox’s coverage of NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, which also ran May 27 from 5:45 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., earned a 4.5 overnight, down 4.3 percent from a 4.7 last year.
Sports marketers said it was impressive that the Indianapolis 500 attracted more viewers than NASCAR’s race despite the rain delay.
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