NASCAR reached several new media rights agreements for the NASCAR Cup Series with FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Prime Video, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports that are worth a combined $7.7 billion. The deals will give the sport a major presence on both traditional TV and streaming.
Starting in 2025, FOX Sports will get the first 14 Cup Series each year, including the Daytona 500 and live events for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Prime Video will stream the next five races, marking NASCAR’s debut into exclusive streaming events. Warner Bros. Discovery will show the following five midseason races on TNT and The Bleacher Report Sports plan on Max. The final 14 races, including the Playoffs and Championship, will air on NBC Sports.
FOX Sports will host five Cup events, and NBC Sports will air four, with the rest broadcasting on FS1 and USA Network. Practice and qualifying sessions will stream live on Prime Video for the first half of the season, then on Max and air on truTV.
The deal runs through the 2031 season.
“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 Steve Phelps, president of NASCAR. “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.”
The shift to streaming is part of NASCAR’s strategy to boost viewership, which has seen a 5% decline since last year, according to Sports Business Journal. The league’s NASCAR Cup Series averaged 2.86 million viewers this year, compared to 3.03 million in 2022, as more people sever ties with cable TV. Last year, NASCAR said it wanted to increase the price of its next media rights deal after its current one with FOX Sports and NBC Sports expires at the end of the 2024 season.
More sports are making the jump to streaming. Prime Video’s streams of Thursday Night Football have seen a 21% increase in viewers over last season’s games, according to Front Office Sports. The platform also streams NBA League Pass and even Pickball. Apple TV is also bulking up its sports content by offering live streams of Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, as well as documentaries and other sports-centric content.
“The media landscape is rapidly evolving, with new distribution platforms providing more options to the consumer than ever before,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of media and productions. “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.”
In July, the CW Network signed a deal with NASCAR for the exclusive media rights to the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2025 through 2031. The network will show all practice and qualifying events in addition to 33 live races. The league’s previous deal split the series into 18 races on FOX Sports and 20 races on NBC Sports.
NASCAR will make an official announcement at its end-of-season banquet in Nashville this afternoon.