When the 2025 NASCAR season commences, so will NASCAR’s new broadcasting deal. The racing organization struck a media rights deal with Fox Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Amazon worth 7.7 Billion dollars which extends from 2025 to 2031. The deal is a 40% rise in revenue for NASCAR from the previous one. But with the gain, the racing organization might actually lose something!

As the 2024 season viewership indicates, NASCAR is on a steady trajectory. However, the racing organization, in an attempt to broaden its reach, has gotten an exclusive streaming partner, Amazon Prime Video. With Amazon, NASCAR is looking to tap into younger markets. However, what is intended to grow NASCAR’s popularity can also backfire on them due to exclusivity. Recently a NASCAR analyst has predicted a dip in numbers next year owning to this new deal.

NASCAR’s media rights deal might misfire

As part of the new deal, Fox will broadcast the first 14 races of the season, including the Daytona 500. 5 events being broadcast on Amazon Prime would follow this, making it the first time NASCAR races to be exclusively streamed. It would also be a first for Amazon, to cover a live Motorsports event. Warner Bros. Discovery will cover the next five on both TNT (Turner Network Television) and the B/R Sports tier on the Max streaming service. The season will be concluded by NBC covering the final 14 races. Prime Video and TNT Sports will also have the exclusive rights to broadcast practice and qualifying sessions for the entire Cup Series schedule through 2031. Lastly, all races of the Xfinity Series will be broadcast by CW, and all Truck Series races by Fox.

With this setup, NASCAR is trying to reach a varied demographic. NASCAR President Steve Phelps had previously spoken on this when he said, “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. 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.”

Currently, NASCAR has been predominantly broadcasting on Fox and NBC, the two biggest names in the industry. And they have gotten satisfactory results with it. Even if you see the 2024 viewership, it shows a 1% growth from last year. Recently Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern shared the viewership data for the 2024 season. In an X post, he wrote, “NBC got a 1.60 rating and 2.895 million viewers for Sunday’s NASCAR Championship race at Phoenix, roughly flat from last year (1.62, 2.9 million). NASCAR finished the 2024 season averaging 2.892 million viewers per event on U.S. television, up 1% from last year.” But NASCAR’s experiment to grow its reach with the new deal can actually prove to be counterproductive.

Recently NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp dwelled on this. In his recent video, he said, “I would not expect next year to be a huge ratings win when NASCAR agreed to this seven-year media deal they clearly chased the max amount of money they could get in lieu of exposure…TV money makes the NASCAR industry work so NASCAR chased the biggest bag they possibly could not just for themselves that money trickles down to the tracks the teams…Unfortunately, at least in some ways, the fans will lose I think the audience numbers will take at least a small hit next year.”

Navigating to watch the entire season on five different platforms is undoubtedly going to be a challenge for the fans, not to mention irritating. “But from an accessibility standpoint watching races and practice and qualifying next year just got more complicated. And for most people probably just got a little more expensive,” Estepp added. But it isn’t all negative, getting a streaming market leader like Amazon is NASCAR’s way of making some room for innovation. With NASCAR reaching more eyes than ever before next season, it could be a historic year for the sport!

New broadcasters might bring a new sense of creativity to NASCAR

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While NASCAR is not competing with the NBA or NFL, it has made a strong footing by being regarded as one of America’s biggest sporting events. Bringing innovations from partners like Amazon and Warner can aid this process. As is also the goal of NASCAR, senior vice president of the racing organization, Brian Herbst had previously said, “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. 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.”

Even Estepp believes it could be somewhat of a step in the right direction when innovation is concerned, especially with regard to content. “I think next year is going to be extremely interesting from a number standpoint…There will be fewer races on broadcast TV there will be more cable races a handful of races exclusively on streaming. Amazon is in tens of millions of households in the US…I’m excited to see how Amazon and Turner hopefully innovate the broadcast. Maybe from a content perspective, fans will actually win next year,” He added.

The 2025 NASCAR season is going to be full of surprises. With this new media deal, the ongoing charter litigation between 23 XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR. Hopefully, some new short-track and Superspeedway packages, who knows, maybe NASCAR would listen to the horsepower demand of drivers. And maybe some changes to the playoff format. Overall, it’s going to be an exciting season!

What do you think? Are you excited about the 2025 NASCAR season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.