The NHRA has parted ways with ESPN and will join Fox Sports.
The NHRA racing series has ended its television contract with ESPN a year ahead of schedule and will join Fox Sports effective next season. Originally reported by Sports Business Daily, the news was announced in a pair of press releases Wednesday.
First, ESPN and the NHRA jointly announced that they have agreed to part ways after this season, ending a relationship that began in 2001. ESPN was under contract through next season, the last of a five-year deal signed in 2012, but the NHRA sought to end the agreement early due to what it perceived as poor treatment.
According to Sports Business Daily, NHRA officials took issue with ESPN airing races on tape delay and in poor timeslots, usually to accommodate other sporting events. An NHRA official quoted by the publication lamented that races were “pushed around depending on an event they paid for” (SBD, 7/14).
The new deal with Fox Sports requires at least sixteen live elimination telecasts each season, including four on the FOX broadcast network. The remaining eight telecasts will air on tape delay either in the afternoon or primetime. The ESPN family of networks were scheduled to air just five live elimination events this season.
(News from ESPN Media Zone, NHRA, Sports Business Daily)
