ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
The highly anticipated NASCAR 2025 season is just around the corner. With less than 50 days to go, teasers and promotional material have already started pouring out. The two cable giants, NBC and Fox, have been flaunting some of the coverage promos, but one major promo everyone has been looking forward to is that of Amazon Prime, which has got fans talking.
Amazon was part of the $7.7 billion NASCAR broadcasting deal, under which they have the rights to cover five exclusive races and practice/qualifications of all races until June. Under this new deal, Amazon will get to stream NASCAR globally. But it doesn’t just stop there—there have been talks of covering it in parallel on Twitch for free.
This change comes as a breath of fresh air, considering NASCAR’s dwindling viewership over the years. From an average viewership of 5.1 million in 2015, the sport plummeted to under 3 million in the last two years. Now that the deal is set to kick into motion next season, the hype is building and Amazon is doing what they do best.
Recently, during NFL’s Thursday Night Football coverage, Amazon teased the first-ever NASCAR X Amazon promo, giving fans their first glimpse of what they can expect, already hyping them up for the next season. And now, to add to that hype, Amazon has gone ahead and released its first-ever look into the NASCAR page on the Prime app.
Under the Sports section, viewers can now see a separate NASCAR tab that takes them into the stream setup and schedule for NASCAR. All this comes along with driver profiles. The page shows images of each track, along with their scheduled date and times. The Prime UI has gotten fans rallying behind Amazon’s quality work.
What exactly are fans looking forward to?
Fans are now really looking forward to a change in production and a whole new way of watching the races. Judging by their records, Amazon has revolutionized how people watch sports. The excitement, at least on Reddit, is pretty evident. As one fan said, “This gives me hope.”
The first glimpse into what NASCAR on streaming will look like has been received with great appreciation. For years, NASCAR fans were bored with the same old bland cable broadcasting from FOX and NBC. Their coverage is deemed by many fans as lacking creativity and antiquated. One fan was clearly frustrated with the cable broadcasting, saying, “I can’t wait for Amazon to deliver a better product than Fox ever did and for people to complain because it’s not on cable.”
One common pattern seen in the fan comments was the lack of proper technological infrastructure to support the streaming-based audience. Many viewers have in the past complained about the lack of resources to watch old races in a good quality UI. Amazon has taken it upon itself to solve some of these issues, and the fans are glad. “I like how it’s set up too; this is what I imagined what the NASCAR Classics website would be if it was an app. Just scrolling through each season until you find whatever race you wanted to watch,” one fan said.
Another huge change many fans are looking forward to is the feed quality and frame rate. Motorsports in 60-120 FPS is a whole other ballgame. The sleek motions without skipped frames and motion blur provide the best viewer experience one can ask for. The fans know that too. As one fan mentioned, “I’m looking forward to how good it’ll look in 4k. I’d love for 1080p 120,” while another noted, “If it’s anything like Thursday Night Football, it’ll look glorious.”
While many appreciated the new step, there were still many digital viewers frustrated that NASCAR took so long to step into the streaming wars. Their stubbornness to stick with TV broadcasting has confused many fans and cost them a lot. The frustration was visible when one fan said, “90% of NASCAR fans will be dead of old age before they drop their beloved TV contracts. Stupidest…thing ever. They shoulda been full streaming ages ago.” Another fan made a great point: “Prime alone has like 3 times more subscriptions than all of traditional cable, Hulu TV, and YT TV combined, and NASCAR’s all like ‘Oh, we can only get 1.5 million people to watch every week, what’s going on?!'”
These changes and the streaming revolution may have come late for NASCAR, but they are still in the game. Ben Kennedy is waiting to play his cards right, to make the sport great again, taking it back to its glory days and the popularity it used to enjoy two decades ago. And fans are keen to see, where he takes the sport with his fresh approach to broadcasting.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
Have something to say?
Let the world know your perspective.
Debate
Will Amazon's NASCAR coverage finally bring the excitement back to a sport losing its TV audience?
What’s your perspective on:
Will Amazon's NASCAR coverage finally bring the excitement back to a sport losing its TV audience?
Have an interesting take?