NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell claimed that Prime Video wishes it could change its NASCAR broadcast deal, though not for the reason you might think.
In 2024, NASCAR came to the end of its long-term broadcast rights agreement that NBC and FOX networks signed ahead of the 2015 season.
In its place, the sport signed a massive seven-year, multi-million-dollar rights deal for its Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, which kicked off in 2025.
As part of this new deal, familiar faces like NBC and USA, along with FOX and FS1, returned alongside TNT, a member of NASCAR’s original 2001 media rights deal that had not broadcast races since 2014.
But there were also two new players in the game: the CW, which would take over exclusive NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series broadcasts, and Prime Video, which would take the first half of the Cup Series 10-race summer block as part of a five-race deal.
While this media rights agreement has had its fair share of controversy, with the sport slimming down its presence on Network TV and dicing up practice and qualifying sessions, fans have all agreed that Prime has stolen the show.
These are the same fans who were initially hesitant about a streaming-exclusive portion of the season, but that tune quickly changed last season.
Each of its five races features a long pre- and post-race show live at the track, alongside a great broadcast booth of veteran broadcasters, with limited full-screen commercials.
In fact, many fans have begged the streaming service to take on even more races, something NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell says Prime Video wishes they had done as part of the 2025 media rights deal.
Speaking with Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, O’Donnell shared that the network regretted not buying more races for its slate. The newly minted CEO also added that they aren’t the only ones, as TNT, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, also wishes they had more on their channel.
While NASCAR fans were excited that the streaming service is happy with its current NASCAR deal, the unfortunate side of things is that if they want more races, they will likely have to wait.
After all, this is just year two of a multi-year deal with the sport’s five broadcast partners. Nonetheless, this deal is a few years shorter than the one signed with FOX and NBC that lasted from 2015 to 2024.
The current deal is set to expire at the end of the 2031 season, meaning the four-part block with 14 points races allotted to NBC/USA Sports, 12 points races to FOX/FS1, and five each to Prime and TNT, has five more years at the end of this season.
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