NASCAR
NASCAR Reveals New Media Rights Agreements with FOX, NBC, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery
Wednesday leading into Nashville Champion’s Week, NASCAR announced a hefty new media rights deal affecting their television future. Starting in 2025, stock car racing will be on FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime, and TNT Sports, a part of Warner Bros. Discovery. This deal is effective for seven years, going through the 2031 season. Exact figures of this deal were not made public, but it is reported to be in excess of $7 billion. This does mark a yearly increase from NASCAR’s past agreement with FOX and NBC.
Legacy media rights partners FOX Sports and NBC Sports will both continue to broadcast the majority of NASCAR Cup Series races. Both companies retain ownership of 14 events. FOX Sports’ segment of the Cup Series schedule kicks off with The Busch Light Clash, followed by the Daytona 500. Fox will also retain the entire NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
NBC Sports’ NASCAR coverage will include the final 14 Cup Series races, including the Playoffs and Championship race. Both partners will feature a mix of broadcast and cable events. Five Cup races will run over-the-air on FOX and four on NBC annually. The rest of their races will play on either FS1 or USA Network.
The historic part of this media rights agreement regards NASCAR’s first foray into streaming live races. The NASCAR Cup Series welcomes two new broadcast partners for 2025 – Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. Both companies will evenly split 10 midseason races. Prime and TNT will also have exclusive rights to broadcast Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions through 2031. NASCAR’s first fully direct-to-consumer partner, Prime Video will stream practice and qualifying live for the first half of the season. This will run through the last race of their midseason series. A few qualifying sessions are standouts and will not be on Prime. These include the Busch Light Clash, Daytona 500 and NASCAR All-Star Race, all of which will remain on FOX Sports.
TNT Sports will kick off their coverage with the next five midseason races, simultaneously broadcast live on TNT and streaming on the B/R Sports Add-On on Max. Practice and qualifying for the remainder of the season will stream on Max and air on TruTV. NASCAR previously aired select races on TNT from 2001-2014.
“Our goal was to secure long-term stability with an optimized mix of distribution platforms and innovative partners that would allow us to grow the sport while delivering our product to fans wherever they are – and we’ve achieved that today,” said NASCAR President, Steve Phelps. “NASCAR has been a cornerstone property for both new and established platforms for several decades. These agreements demonstrate the staying power of our sport and the consistent, large-scale audience it delivers. This landmark deal underscores our collective growth opportunity to drive engagement across this diverse collection of platforms – whether on broadcast, cable or direct-to-consumer. With the talented young drivers, exciting new teams and record-breaking racing we’ve seen since the Next Gen car was introduced in 2022, we’re looking forward to working with each of these partners to bring some of the best racing in the world to fans everywhere.”
“These agreements not only show NASCAR’s importance to the sports and entertainment ecosystem, but also the willingness of some of the world’s largest and most respected media companies to make significant investments in America’s leading motorsport,” said Senior Vice President, Media and Productions, NASCAR, Brian Herbst. “The media landscape is rapidly evolving, with new distribution platforms providing more options to the consumer than ever before. This is the right mix of media partners to promote and deliver content around our sport – positioning NASCAR for growth across different mediums and giving our fans uninterrupted access on the established platforms that they are already using. We are excited to work with this best-in-class group of media companies to deliver the best of NASCAR racing and the excitement of live sports to our fans.”
Beginning in just over 12 months, NASCAR’s future is exciting, beginning a presence on two new, vibrant and ever-popular streaming apps. This news may be a large amount of information to receive all at once. We will all adjust to this new change in time however. Being on Prime Video and Max will help NASCAR reach into a previously-untapped market of countless prospective fans.
Written by Peter Stratta
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