The long-awaited NASCAR media rights deals have reportedly all been signed, and we’re just waiting for official announcements.
Per the Sports Business Journal, NASCAR has agreed to all its new media rights deals, paying $7.7 billion over seven years. Five networks are involved, including the previously announced deal with The CW for Xfinity Series races. Incumbent partners, Fox and NBC renewed their deals, while Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery are new NASCAR partners in this set of agreements. Fox and NBC were long tied to continuing their media rights deals, with NASCAR looking for a streamer to pick up a new package of races.
Amazon and WBD will split a midseason package of ten races, increased from a six-race package NASCAR was initially shopping. Each company will get five races.
In this round of media rights deals, Fox will have the first 14 Cup Series races of the season, with five airing on the Fox broadcast network and nine on FS1. The following five will stream on Prime Video, and the five after that will air on TNT and can be streamed on Max’s B/R Sports Tier. The season will close with 14 races airing on NBC Sports properties, four on broadcast, and ten on USA Network.
Fox’s end of the deal also contains the rights for the Craftsman Truck Series, which will remain on Fox platforms.
Additionally, per SBJ, most qualifying and broadcast sessions will be heading to streaming, with Prime Video taking the first half of the season and truTV and Max taking the second half.
A unique part of these deals is that NASCAR carved out a package of practice and qualifying sessions for the Cup Series. Amazon Prime will carry these events from the start of the season through the end of its races (with the exception of the Busch Light Clash exhibition, Daytona 500 and NASCAR All-Star Race exhibition, which will remain with Fox).
WBD’s Max will carry these events for the remainder of the season after that; practice and qualifying will stream on Max and air on linear TV on truTV.
The new media rights deals begin with the 2025 season and will run through 2031.
This round of media rights deals will force viewers to change their behaviors. Cup series races will air on five different networks and a streaming platform. Qualifying and practice will air on several different properties, both streaming and cable. NASCAR didn’t abandon cable and broadcast in these deals, but it also didn’t eschew streaming, forcing fans to subscribe to multiple platforms if they want to watch every race.
But in the current sports media landscape, that’s simply the way things are. Even the NFL is exclusively streaming games these days. It’s no surprise NASCAR is also taking the plunge.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.