ESPN’s Telecast of Monaco Grand Prix Earns F1’s Largest Cable Audience Since 1995

As we have been telling our readers, using NBCSN to broadcast your race series is a death wish. ESPN/ABC are superior when it comes to TV ratings

ESPN’s live telecast of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, May 27, earned F1’s largest audience on cable in more than two decades, according to Nielsen Fast National data.

With an average of 809,000 people watching, the telecast was the most-viewed Formula 1 race on cable since the 1995 Italian Grand Prix, which also aired on ESPN and averaged 876,000 viewers.

IndyCar on NBCSN

Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix aired live at 9:05 a.m. ET on ESPN and an encore presentation aired on ABC at 3:45 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

The ABC telecast averaged 1.6 million viewers. Based on fast national data, the combined live and re-air telecasts on ESPN and ABC averaged 2.4 million viewers, an increase of 40 percent over the final combined numbers of the live and re-air telecasts that aired on NBC and NBCSN last year.

The Formula 1 season continues Sunday, June 10, with the Canadian Grand Prix live on ABC at 2 p.m.