Long Beach GP delivers year-on-year TV audience gain

The 50th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach delivered an audience of 552,000 viewers on FOX.

It represents a sizable improvement over the disappointing 307,348 who watched last year on NBC’s USA cable channel. Despite the 80 percent year-to-year gain, the volume of viewers was the second in a row to fall below seven figures, which was likely influenced by going up against The Masters golf tournament on CBS.

IndyCar’s debut on FOX at St Petersburg was a runaway ratings success that produced a TV audience of 1,417,000, up 46 percent over the 2024 broadcast with the series’ former partner at NBC. The second race at The Thermal Club, which faced immense competition from March Madness and NASCAR airing on FOX Sports 1, brought an 11-percent drop to 704,000 viewers.

While Long Beach achieved the smallest TV audience among all races at this early point of the season, three events on FOX have combined to bring the IndyCar Series to a larger audience overall, gaining 27 percent over the three opening races in 2024.