Entertainment

NASCAR to include streaming in new 7-year media rights deal that welcomes Amazon, TNT and Max

November 30, 2023 3:34 pm

[Source: AP]

NASCAR has added two new partners and streaming elements to a seven-year media rights deal announced Wednesday that will run from 2025 through the 2031 season.

The new media rights deal is worth $7.7 billion when the previously announced $1.1 billion agreement with CW is included, according to Sports Business Journal. NASCAR did not reveal monetary figures at the news conference held at the Music City Center one day before its season-ending awards ceremony.

The Cup Series will include existing partners Fox Sports and NBC, which will feature a mix of broadcast and cable events. Five races will be on Fox and four on NBC, with the remaining races for those two partners to air on FS1 and USA Network.

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Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon have also joined the new package. SBJ said the value of the new deal is a 40% increase over the 10-year, $8.2 billion deal NASCAR has with Fox and NBC that expires at the end of the 2024 season.

“We are super excited about what 2025 is going to bring to us because of where the distribution that we now have across air, which is a combination of obviously broadcast, cable and streaming,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “We want to meet race fans where they are or potentially where they are. We think this group does exactly that for us.”

The announcement ends a prolonged negotiating period for NASCAR as it tried to lock down a new media deal before the start of the 2024 season, the final year of the existing package.

“Our industry comes together better than any other sports property when there’s a mountain to climb,” Phelps said.

As part of the deals, Fox will get 14 Cup Series races annually in the first portion of the season, including the Daytona 500. Fox also retained the entire Truck Series schedule.