Back to Lou's original post and comment, the percentage increase looked kinda familiar.

If I am reading the article correctly below, once the "freebies" expired there were 64M Versus households during the carraige dispute which continued through the 2009 IndyCar season.

With the DTV dispute resolved, the increase to 75M households served to benefit IndyCar's 2010 ratings. The broadcasts were available to 15% more home viewers.

Which means that promotion or continuity were not responsible for any increase in viewership on Versus. This was purely an increase in availability.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...eviews_End.php