Amid IndyCar Broadcast Bid, Fox Sports Needs to Fix Its NASCAR Broadcast Mistakes

2025 seems to be a very big year for American motorsports. For NASCAR, there will be a new broadcasting rights deal that will come into effect, and it is worth $7.7 billion for 7 years. Meanwhile, IndyCar is also seeking a brand new broadcasting deal for the 2025 season and beyond. According to reports, Fox Sports is the favorite to be the new media rights holder.

Currently, IndyCar has a deal with NBC Sports, which is reportedly worth $20 million annually. Much like NASCAR though, that deal expires at the end of the 2024 season. However, the big difference is that IndyCar is still dillydallying with the situation. Apparently, Fox Sports views IndyCar as a ‘high-value property’ and it could boost its portfolio.

Fox Sports are very excited about allying with IndyCar

IndyCar/Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told Racer, “On Fox, I can confirm that they have been interested. They’ve been in discussions with us from when we first began the process to market our rights for 2025. They’re fans of IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500 race. They built a reputation for doing a great job in the way they tell stories and in the way they produce events. I think they’re eager to see what they could do in that regard with the [Indianapolis] 500 and with IndyCar.”

Of course, Fox Sports will have to fend off a lot of competition from rival media houses. This includes NBC Sports, who would want to continue their alliance. Other potential partners include The CW and Apple, both of whom are very intriguing customers. As per reports, IndyCar hired Endeavor’s IMG Media division to pursue a domestic rights fee. There were also other changes, like the season-ending Music City Grand Prix in Nashville moving to the Nashville Superspeedway.

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Fox Sports has to fix its issues with the NASCAR broadcast

Speaking of Fox Sports and NASCAR, there have been several complaints about the broadcast. Back in 2019, during a Truck Series race at Martinsville, Fox Sports viewers missed the last two laps of the race. At the time, the excuse was that the overtime was going to eat into the college football broadcast. As a result, the last two laps were cut out and after revealing the winner, it changed to football.

It is also interesting to note that a year before this incident, Fox Sports announced a number of cuts to NASCAR coverage. It came across as Fox Sports was losing interest in NASCAR. Denny Hamlin also highlighted another issue on his podcast, where they sometimes missed crucial events. Or the commentary and the camerawork were not in sync with each other at all.

He said, “One thing I saw at [Bristol] dirt last week, or when I watched it back, was the announcers would be talking about some side-by-side battle and the camera wasn’t on it. So you didn’t know, ‘What are they talking about? Let me see this battle.’ And then you see, I did notice too, as soon as some action would start to heat up on a side-by-side battle, they cut to 12th place and these guys are battling for, you see the second place guy working over the first place guy, right on his *** and about to make a move, and they cut to side-by-side for 12. And it’s like, ‘Oh, well ****, let’s just let’s keep it in the battle that’s about to dictate who’s going to be leading this race. So certainly, I think from a production standpoint we could make some improvements.”

Once upon a time, the channel used to boast of being able to broadcast F1, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and 24 Hours of Daytona. However, those series have all since left and found other broadcast partners. Aside from that, the pre-race coverage has a tendency to be a little childish, owing to the skits they aired. On the other side of the spectrum, NBC Sports treats its broadcast in a slightly more professional manner. All that being said, IndyCar should know what they are getting themselves into, with Fox Sports, while the latter should work on these issues.

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