The NTT IndyCar Series continues to work towards the signing of its next broadcast partnership contract. The series’ deal with NBC, its current partner for linear and streaming distribution through Peacock, enters its final season in 2024.
“We first made the NBC deal in 2018 for ’19, ‘20 and 21, and then we extended for ‘22 and ’23 and next year, so they have our exclusive live rights through 2024 calendar year in our agreement,” Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER.
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“In our agreement with them, we did not grant so-called ‘back-end rights.’ Sometimes, for example, we might have a deal with an incumbent partner. And we might get to the point where sometimes you make an offer to them – ‘This is (the amount of money) what we want to extend.’ They say no, you go back out in the marketplace, you get a new level of understanding of what your values are, they go up, you go back to the incumbency, now you have a right to match. That sort of thing is just not in our agreement with NBC.
“NBC has been a fantastic partner in every respect, including the business aspects of it. And so they understand that, and they understood what that would mean at the end of the agreement.”
Miles says he is in the midst of a busy travel routine as meetings are held with a range of networks and streamers.
“And what it means is that we are now at the place where we are having we call a roadshow,” he added. “So I’ve been in LA for a day, each of the last three weeks in New York for days of two weeks, going back to LA before the before Christmas. And these are conversations that we have received by numerous with broadcasters, and there are several interested parties.
“These things are not like here’s an RFP (request for proposal), fill in the blanks, and we’ll see who’s highest. It takes a lot of conversation around programming, scheduling, around promotion. Obviously, rights fees at the end of the day are very, very important to us. I think it’s going to be a growth opportunity.”
According to NBC, the 2023 championship was the most-watched IndyCar season since 2011 and the most-streamed to date.