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NASCAR officially announced their next media rights deal in Nashville on Wednesday. The 7-year deal features two new partners, Amazon Prime and Warner Bros./Turner, and the return of Fox and NBC. Highlights of the deal include a decrease in races on network TV and NASCAR’s first deal to have races streamed exclusively.
You Need to Know:
With Fox and NBC broadcasting the first 14 and last 14 races, on the 2024 schedule, theoretically, FOX would broadcast from the Clash all the way through the spring Darlington race, while NBC would pick up the schedule from the summer Richmond race all the way through the end of the season at Phoenix. However, Fox will seemingly retain the rights to the All-Star Race, so, a date swap for that race is something to watch on the 2025 schedule.
Fox and NBC returning was reported for a while. Fox Corp. CEO Lechlan Murdoch said in an interview with Awful Announcing’s Daniel Kaplan that they were in the “Final Stages” of renewing their deal with NASCAR. Steve Phelps said during a webinar that Fox and NBC were expected to return according to NBC Sports’ Dustin Long.
The 9 races on network TV of the new del is down from 21 races on network TV under the current deal. However, this does mean that NBC races will not be exclusively on Peacock, which NBC properties such as the NFL, college football, and IndyCar each had events exclusively on Peacock.
Now, Fox and NBC taking only 28 races leaving 10 races in the middle of the season for TNT and Amazon. Amazon will get the first 5 races of the mid-season package, with TNT broadcasting the next 5 while on Max’s Bleacher Report Sports getting the next 5. Amazon has been the exclusive streaming partner of NFL’s Thursday Night Football, while Turner’s Bleacher Report Sports began its run during the 2023 MLB Playoffs.
Again, looking at the 2024 schedule, theoretically, Amazon would get Spring Darlington, the Coca-Cola 600, Gateway, Sonoma, and Iowa. TN would get New Hampshire, Nashville, Chicago, Pocono, and Indianapolis. TNT joins NASCAR for the first time since 2014 when it last held a 6-race summer package between 2007 and 2014. Amazon will be the first streaming service to ever broadcast NASCAR.
Practice an qualifying will also undergo a change. Under the current TV deal, Fox and NBC are responsible for broadcasting practice and qualifying sessions.
Amazon Prime will cover Cup Series practice and qualifying during the Fox and TNT portion of the schedule. However, qualifying for the Daytona 500, Clash, and the All-Star Race will be on Fox. For the Amazon Prime and NBC portion of the schedule, TruTV will broadcast practice and qualifying for the Cup Series while simultaneously being streamed on Max.
It is not unprecedented for NASCAR to not put practice and qualifying on the channels that broadcast that weekend’s races. Speed Channel used to broadcast a chunk of NASCAR practice and qualifying sessions throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, despite the races airing on its sister network, Fox.
According to John Ourand and Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, the deal is worth $7.7 billion number for the TV deal at $1.1 billion per year including the Xfinity Series CW deal. This is a shorter TV deal than the last one, which was 10 years in length. However, the last media rights deal was worth $8.2 billion, or only $820 million per year makes for a yearly increase of nearly $300 million. Overall, NASCAR did get the increase they were hoping for with the next TV deal.
Greg Matherne likes the money, but he does not like the lack of races on network TV.
DannyB likes it, but the summer series could get interesting.
Caleb Hoffman does not see why so many people are complaining.
Brett decided to help fans out with a graphic.
Dale Tanhardt is here to help the fans
Is this media rights deal good or bad for NASCAR? Time will ultimately tell, and we will have a full year to analyze it as time goes on.
