NASCAR’s new seven-year media rights agreement will include streaming

In a seven-year media rights agreement announced on Wednesday, NASCAR has added two new partners and streaming elements. The agreement will run from 2025 through the 2031 season.

When the previously disclosed $1.1 billion arrangement with CW is taken into account, the new media rights deal is valued at $7.7 billion, according to Sports Business Journal. One day prior to its season-ending awards ceremony, NASCAR conducted a press conference at Music City Centre, but they did not provide any financial information.

“We are super excited about what 2025 is going to bring to us because of where the distribution that we now have across air, which is a combination of obviously broadcast, cable and streaming,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps said. “We want to meet race fans where they are or potentially where they are. We think this group does exactly that for us.”

Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery have joined the package, but Fox Sports and NBC, the Cup Series’ existing partners, will remain. According to SBJ, the new agreement’s average yearly value is 40% higher than NASCAR’s current 10-year, $8.2 billion contract with Fox and NBC, which is set to expire at the end of the 2024 season.

“Our industry comes together better than any other sports property when there’s a mountain to climb,” Phelps stated.

Fox will receive 14 Cup Series races, including the Daytona 500, each year over the opening stretch of the season as part of the agreements. For the first time in NASCAR history, the top series will be aired exclusively on Amazon Prime Video for the following five Cup events.

Following Amazon’s races, Warner Bros. Discovery will take control and host the following five races. TNT will simulcast those, while the Max service will stream them.

The final 14 races of the season will air on NBC Sports.

Additionally, through 2031, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon will have the only right to use practise and qualifying sessions for the duration of the Cup Series schedule. With the exception of the Fox Sports showcase Busch Light Clash, the Daytona 500, and the NASCAR All-Star Race, Prime Video will broadcast live practise and qualifying during the first half of the season through the final race of the midseason series.

The remaining practise and qualifying sessions of the season will be broadcast on truTV in addition to being streamed on Max by TNT Sports. A deal to relocate the second-tier Xfinity Series to CW, which will broadcast 33 live races from 2025 through 2031, was announced by NASCAR in July. Every weekend, practise and qualifying events will also be televised on the CW.

Under the prior arrangement, Fox broadcast the first 18 races while NBC broadcast the remaining 20.