The Indianapolis 500 has been broadcast on network television in the United States since 1965. As of 2025, the race airs on FOX. From 1965 to 2018, the event was broadcast by ABC, making it the second-longest-running relationship between an individual sporting event and television network, [1] surpassed only by CBS Sports' relationship with the Masters Tournament (since 1956). In 2014, ABC celebrated fifty years televising the Indianapolis 500, not including 1961 through 1964 when reports and highlights of time trials were aired on ABC's Wide World of Sports . [2] [3] [4] [5] From 2019 to 2024, the race aired on NBC.
Contents
- Live coverage
- FOX era
- NBC era
- ABC era
- ABC-TV live telecast gallery
- Same-day tape delay coverage
- Wide World of Sports & closed-circuit coverage
- Local live coverage
- Time trials and practice
- Footnotes
- See also
- References
- Works cited
From 1965 to 1970, ABC televised a combination of filmed and/or taped recorded highlights of the race the following weekend on their flagship anthology series Wide World of Sports . The 1965 and 1966 presentations were in black-and-white, while all subsequent presentations have been in color. From 1971 to 1985, the Indianapolis 500 was shown on a same-day tape delay basis. Races were edited to a two-hour or three-hour broadcast, and shown in prime time.
Starting in 1986, the race has been shown live in "flag-to-flag" coverage. In the Indianapolis market, as well as other parts of Indiana, the live telecast is blacked out and shown tape delayed to encourage gate attendance. Through 1991, the local tape-delay broadcast aired one or two weeks after the race, and during the 1970s, it aired as long a month after the race. In 1992 the local tape-delay broadcast was pushed forward to same-day tape on Sunday evening. In 2016, the tickets for the race were completely sold out, such that the local blackout was lifted for that year. [6] Since 2007, the race has been aired in high definition.
Currently, the television voice of the Indy 500 is Will Buxton, a role he will assume for the first time in 2025. Previous television anchors include Chris Schenkel, Jim McKay, Keith Jackson, Jim Lampley, Paul Page, Bob Jenkins, Todd Harris, Marty Reid, and Allen Bestwick (all of ABC); followed by Leigh Diffey, who called the race on NBC in 2019–2024. [7] Other longtime fixtures of the broadcast include Jack Arute, Sam Posey, Jackie Stewart, Chris Economaki, Bobby Unser, Jerry Punch, and Scott Goodyear.
On August 10, 2011, ABC extended their exclusive contract to carry the Indianapolis 500 through 2018. [8] Starting in 2014, the contract also includes live coverage of the IndyCar Grand Prix on the road course. [9]
In 2019, the Indianapolis 500 moved to NBC, as part of a new three-year contract that unifies the IndyCar Series' television rights with NBC Sports (the parent division of IndyCar's then-current cable partner NBCSN), and replaces the separate package of five races broadcast by ABC. The Indianapolis 500 is one of eight races televised by NBC as part of the new deal, which ended ABC's 54-year tenure as broadcaster of the event. [10] [11] [12] WTHR is the local broadcaster of the race under this contract; the existing blackout policy is expected to continue should the race not sell out. [13] As no spectators were allowed for the 2020 Indianapolis 500, the race was aired live in the Indianapolis market. Two subsequent live broadcasts occurred in 2021, when the number of spectators was limited under local public health orders, and 2024, after a significant weather delay. [14] [15]
Fox Sports took over rights to IndyCar, including the Indianapolis 500, beginning in 2025. [16] The Speedway is expected to continue to enforce the live local blackout on Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN. [17] After a grandstand sellout was announced, however, the local blackout was lifted for 2025. [18] [19] WXIN initially prepared to broadcast Memorial Day related programs in the window that networks like FOX would have used to air prime time programs in a transposed broadcast.
