$7.7 Billion TV Deal Spells Good News for NASCAR Charter Teams, Here is Why

There are two ways to watch a sporting event: watch it live at the grandstands, or from the comfort of your home. For that though, the respective sports have to ink deals with TV broadcasters to air the events for the fans at home. After all, the venues do have limited capacity, and it is just ambitious to think that every fan can physically make it to the venue, especially when they live on the other side of the earth. The same principle can apply to NASCAR.

Recently, the stock car racing series confirmed a mega $7.7 billion TV deal for the next seven years. Aside from Fox Sports and NBC, there were some new players, like Amazon, TNT Max, and Warner Brothers Discovery. As per reports, the new deal will not come into effect until 2025, and it will run until 2031.

NASCAR President Steve Phelps 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.”

What are charter teams in NASCAR? And how does the deal affect them?

This is pretty good news for the stock car racing series as a whole. This is because they have the charter system in place, as a way to guarantee full-time competitors’ automatic entrance into every race. It is also noteworthy that these charters are transferable if a team elects to pull out of the sport. In all, the NASCAR Cup Series boasts 36 charters, with a provision for four “open” spots on the grid per race. This system first came about, thanks to the efforts of the Race Team Alliance, which was established in 2014. Its operation was similar to FOTA [Formula One Teams Association] and they established the charter system in 2016.

Of course, buying a charter is not at all cheap, and as of 2022, the asking price to buy a charter is $20 million. Of course, there is no guarantee that these charters are permanent, as some teams can lose them. There are some criteria for losing a charter, namely failure to field a car. Another way to lose a charter is if the team finishes in the bottom three in owner point standings for three consecutive seasons. As per reports, a charter system renewal for 2024 and beyond would include a change in the revenue distribution.

With this, a greater percentage of revenue could go to the teams. Now, with the 7.7 billion deal in place for seven years, it could mean that more money could be on the cards. This is because TV revenue is split 65 percent for tracks, 25 percent for teams, and 10 percent for NASCAR. However, since that deal expires at the end of the 2024 season, a new deal might mean more money.

It also helps that NASCAR approached the CW Network to air Xfinity Series races. The idea behind this was to increase the value of the current full-time teams. Some charters can also be leased, though there is an option to buy a charter from an existing team’s operations. In accordance with NASCAR’s four-car rule, no organization may possess more than four charters.

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What does the new TV deal entail for the Cup Series?

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Of course, the charter system is not without its critics, but there is hope that this new deal can change things. According to Sports Business Journal, 2025 race coverage will be divided among the various parties. Fox Sports and Fox Sports 1 will have the rights to broadcast 14 Cup races. Amazon Prime will air five races, and another five will air on TNT and Bleacher Report and 14 races will air on the NBC/USA Network. With Amazon Prime and Bleacher Report [via HBO Max], it will be the first time that NASCAR is airing on a streaming service.

Roping in Amazon was a stroke of genius, because of its massive subscriber count. In the modern era, more and more sports have gone to direct streaming services. NASCAR will pretty much be the latest to join the party. President Steve Phelps also revealed that the sport is also experimenting with the Cup Series schedule. To be exact, all of the races will be switched around and Phelps insisted that the move has worked wonders. However, he also declared that the Daytona 500’s status as the season opener is safe.

He said, “TNT Sports has a premium live sports portfolio with proven, high-quality distribution to millions of sports fans across both cable television and now direct-to-consumer with the exciting opportunities to innovate on Max. We are thrilled to reunite with their talented team to bring America’s leading motorsport back to TNT Sports as a key pillar of their live sports programming mix in 2025.”

What other plans are in place for NASCAR and its TV deal?

Prime Video Vice President and Global Head of Sports, Jay Marine, also revealed a few plans for Amazon. According to him, they wanted to stream the Cup Series practice and qualifying for most of the first half of 2025. This would allow the streaming service to try and build up its NASCAR audience.

Meanwhile, Phelps also said, “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.”

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For now, the stock car racing series will be more than happy to continue its current TV deal. So the upcoming Cup Series season will be the last one for Fox Sports and NBC Sports before the new contract comes into effect. This contract was inked back in 2015, so the upcoming campaign will mark its 10th year. Furthermore, that same contract was worth $8.2 billion and the new contract closely followed the Xfinity broadcast deal.