All about $1,100,000,000 per year NASCAR media rights deal explored

Following a lengthy delay, NASCAR has finally announced $7.7B worth of media rights deals, which amounts to $1.1B per year for seven years, starting from 2025 to 2031.

This is a significant deal for the premier stock car racing series, as it represents about a 40% increase compared to its current deal with Fox and NBC, which stands at $820 million per year and is set to expire at the end of the 2024 season.

Ahead of the 2023 NASCAR Awards Ceremony in Nashville, the media deal was announced to the public with four media giants getting a piece of the NASCAR action. Fox and NBC will continue their coverage of the sport alongside streaming partners Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The new media deal will also see the Cup races airing exclusively on streaming platforms for the first time. Let's break down the new media deals across the three national series.

Out of the 38 events in the NASCAR Cup Series, Fox will cover the first 14 races of the season, including the pre-season Busch Clash and the season-opening Daytona 500. The next five races will be streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

In the second half of the season, Warner Bros will take the media duties for the first five races and will simulcast on both TNT and B/R Sports tier on the Max streaming service. NBC Sports will cover the final 14 events of the season including the playoffs and the Championship race.

In the first half of the season, the practice and qualifying for the Cup Series will be exclusively broadcast on Prime Video except for the Busch Light Clash, Daytona 500, and the All-Star Race.

Similarly, the practice and qualifying sessions in the second half of the season will stream on Max and truTV. The new deal also provides highlights rights to WBD’s Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, in a bid to reach the younger audience.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be exclusively run on The CW Network from 2025 to 2031.

Fox Sports has renewed its current deal for the Truck Series and will continue to broadcast the entire schedule on FS1.

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NASCAR President expands on Cup Series media deal

With NASCAR venturing into the streaming world for the first time, President Steve Phelps explained why it was important to expand to new avenues. He said (via FOX):

"We have two great partners right now in NBC and FOX with broadcast and cable". It was important to add the direct-to-consumer streaming element to it. ... These four particular [partners] all add something unique and different for our fans."

He added:

"As we looked through the lens of what this deal was going to look like, we had the fan interest in mind. And not just the existing fans, but new fans as well."

The new media deal represents more money distributed among the teams but also represents significant hurdles for the viewers at home. The TV audience will have to navigate through five different media channels to watch the live coverage.