Latest Viewership Setback Paints Gloomy Picture for NASCAR as Recent Deals Threaten to Alienate Fans For Good

NASCAR has been growing at great speeds, and that’s great news for the sport as it makes its attempts to become a global attraction. Its growth has brought many benefits for the teams and drivers. But it looks like its fans are taking a hit because of these ambitions.

NASCAR has been vying to challenge F1, NFL, and NBA for viewers. While NFL and NBA have established themselves as leaders in the American market for years, F1 has been making rapid growth in the American market since the launch of its Netflix docuseries.

NASCAR witnessed a slump in viewership in the past decade, which was coupled with the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately for the organization, things have progressed and numbers have picked up in 2022.

In its ambition to strike better deals for media rights, NASCAR has made certain policy changes. Restricting and streamlining fan accessibility to the races is a part of those changes.

For instance, this season’s Awards Show in Nashville was available for watching only on the Peacock platform, NASCAR’s streaming partner. Unless a fan paid for the Peacock Premium subscription, priced at $49.99/year and $4.99/month, they couldn’t watch the show.

Similarly, several practices and qualifying sessions of the 2022 season were not available anywhere other than Peacock or the NBC Sports app.

All these moves are in line with the organization’s shift in focus on the younger generations. As the younger generations prefer streaming over TV broadcasts, they have systematically pushed the latter out of favor.

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Predictably, the older demographic has hit out at the organization for its moves. But does that really matter?

NASCAR aims for a bigger pie

The last time the sport negotiated its TV & Media rights deal was in 2013. Signed in 2015, its deals with NBC and Fox run until the end of 2024. However, it is common knowledge that there is more potential for the milking of this lucrative deal.

As there are expectations for attendance in the grandstands to fall, or at most stagnate, the money lies in streaming. Media companies know it, NASCAR knows it, and teams know it.

Negotiations have been ongoing between NASCAR and its current rights-holders, Fox and NBC. Reportedly, the organization is aiming to ride the wave of multi-million media rights deals (or possibly even one crossing the billion-dollar mark).

As per Front Office Sports, the honchos will expect at least a 10-15% increase at NASCAR. With the current deal paying the organization a combined $820 million a year, the increase could mean $900-$950 million per year.

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With the NFL having done it, and the NBA expected to do it, could NASCAR do it too – more than $1 billion a year? What are your thoughts?