IMSA TV viewership up 21 percent year-to-year

IMSA received an early Christmas gift from the analytics department at NBC Sports, which reports the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship produced a 21-percent year-to-year increase in viewership.

After taking over the broadcast rights for IMSA from FOX and FOX Sports in 2019, NBC Sports says IMSA races on NBC and NBCSN rose from an average of 128,000 viewers with its former TV partners in 2018 to 242,000, an 89-percent improvement for the abbreviated 2020 championship.

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NBC also reports the series’ July race at Sebring International Raceway delivered NBCSN’s biggest WeatherTech Championship cable audience for the year with 358,000 viewers, and on the main network, January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona averaged a peak of 996,000.

“We set ambitious goals for audience growth coming into the 2020 season, long before our whole world changed,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “That we not only were able to put together a full and highly competitive season, but to see the kind of growth we achieved this year is a testament to the commitment of the IMSA team and our stakeholders.

"At a time when many other sports properties saw a decline in their audience, our performance in 2020 is a great source of pride and positions us for future success.”