As expected, Fox Sports has acquired the remaining available NASCAR inventory.
Fox Sports has acquired rights to three additional NASCAR Sprint Cup races per year and the first half of the Nationwide Series schedule, the parties announced Thursday. FOX already owned rights to 13 Sprint Cup races, the NASCAR All-Star Race, and the entire truck series schedule as part of a media rights deal last fall.
With the additional rights, FOX and NASCAR have agreed to extend last year’s media rights deal by two years — through 2024, the same year NBC’s deal with NASCAR expires.
FOX has also increased its rights fee by $1.4B over the life of the deal, according to Sports Business Daily.
Overall, Fox Sports will own the rights to 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup races per season starting in 2015. Only nine of those races will air on FOX, however — compared to all 13 under the current deal. Fox Sports 1 will televise the other seven.
In an interesting move for NASCAR, Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network — both fledgling outlets at this point — will combine to televise 20 races per year starting in 2015. By comparison, broadcast networks FOX and NBC will air sixteen races. While the ratio of broadcast-to-cable telecasts remains the same, trading proven outlets ESPN and TNT for FS1 and NBCSN could be a risky move.
Under the new deals, NBC Sports Network will televise more Sprint Cup races than any other network per season (13), followed by FOX (9), and NBC and Fox Sports 1 (7 each).
As for the Nationwide Series, all fourteen races acquired by Fox Sports will air on Fox Sports 1.
(Thu. news from Fox Sports, Sports Business Daily)
