NASCAR is getting a big payday and two new partners in its new media rights deal, at the cost of fewer Cup Series races on broadcast TV.
NASCAR announced Wednesday that it has reached new media rights deals with incumbents Fox Sports and NBC, plus Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon. Per Sports Business Journal, the new seven-year agreements will be worth a combined $1.1 billion per year, including a previously announced rights deal with Nexstar for Xfinity Series races.
Under the new deal, Fox and NBC will scale back their race inventory to 14 apiece, down from 18 and 20 respectively. Notably, only nine of those races will air on broadcast television — less than half the 19 that aired on broadcast this past season — with FOX carrying five and NBC four. The sharp reduction in Cup Series races on broadcast TV comes as the entire Xfinity Series slate is set to air on broadcast “netlet” The CW.
Amazon Prime Video and TNT will split the remaining ten races, with the Amazon deal marking the first time NASCAR has ever distributed races exclusively via a streaming service. The Amazon races will take place immediately following the Fox portion of the season, followed by the TNT portion of the season. The five-race TNT package is virtually identical to the six-race “Summer Series” the network aired in its previous NASCAR tenure, which ended in 2014.
Amazon and WBD will also split the full season of practice and qualifying sessions, with the first half of those airing on Prime Video and the second half airing on the WBD streaming service Max and truTV. That excludes the weeks of “The Clash,” Daytona 500 and NASCAR All-Star Race, whose practice and qualifying will continue to air on Fox Sports.
While the Cup and Xfinity schedules will be markedly different in the new deal, there is no change to the Truck Series — which will continue to air on Fox Sports.
(News from NASCAR, SBJ 11.29)
