Fox Sports is reportedly on the brink of a deal to acquire the IndyCar Series.
IndyCar and Fox Sports are nearing an agreement on a media rights deal that could be announced within days, Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal reported Wednesday, a move that would almost certainly mark the end of the circuit’s relationship with NBC Sports.
IndyCar races have aired solely on NBC Sports dating back to 2019, but the relationship between the series and NBC parent company Comcast dates back to 2009 — when the now-defunct cable network then-known as Versus acquired cable rights.
The new deal would result in the Indianapolis 500 airing on a third-different network in just eight years, after previously airing on ABC for 54 straight. FOX will have a vacancy on Memorial Day weekend starting next year, when the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 moves to Amazon’s Prime Video service.
That is not the only vacancy Fox will have next season, as the number of NASCAR Cup Series races on its broadcast network will be sliced in half from ten to five as part of that circuit’s new media rights deal. One can assume that some of the windows FOX used to use on NASCAR will instead belong to IndyCar.
It remains to be seen how IndyCar races will be split across the Fox Sports platforms. IndyCar has in the past emphasized the importance of broadcast television, and in recent years the majority of races have aired on the NBC broadcast network. Unlike NBC, which shut down NBCSN in 2021, Fox still has a 24-hour sport network in need of content.
For FOX, IndyCar marks a return to open wheel racing after more than a decade. The company owned rights to Formula 1 until 2013.
