The FOX Broadcasting Company has emerged as a serious contender for the NTT IndyCar Series’ broadcast rights. NBC, the series’ current TV and streaming partner which has held its exclusive rights since 2019, is entering the final year of its broadcast arrangement with IndyCar.
Multiple sources have told RACER that FOX — the network and cable giant which holds major contracts with the NFL, MLB, FIFA’s World Cup, NCAA football and basketball, and NASCAR — is taking a hard look at IndyCar as a high-value property to add to its limited roster of motor racing offerings. RACER also understands Indiana-born FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks attended at least one IndyCar race last year as a guest of the series and was visited by the series on a recent trip to Los Angeles.
Once known as the home for Formula 1, IMSA, Supercross, and the FIA World Endurance Championship — especially through its Fox Sports 1 and 2 cable outlets — FOX has placed the majority of its focus on NASCAR and shoulder programming, including a daily “NASCAR Race Hub” news show on FS1 and routine features about the country’s most popular form of racing on its channels. FOX also airs the NHRA.
“On FOX, I can confirm that they have been interested,” IndyCar/Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER. “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 500 and with IndyCar.”
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Like FOX, NBC and other network, cable, and streaming entities — believed to be six or seven in total — have registered a desire to earn a new deal with the series that debuted at the 1911 Indy 500.
“FOX continues to be in discussions with us and there’s a regular cadence of communication with them and others,” Miles added. “We’ll see where it goes.”
Although a move to FOX and its sports cable outlets would provide a fresh start for IndyCar, leaving NBC would involve departing the most-watched network in 2023, according to Variety, for the network which rated fourth after CBS and ABC. The potential upsides, however, are notable.
Among the positives for IndyCar would be its placement atop FOX’s motor racing priorities once the network does its annual midseason transfer of its NASCAR coverage to NBC. Under NASCAR’s new and expanded broadcast package that starts in 2025, FOX and NBC will see their split of the entire Cup Series calendar reduced as NASCAR takes 10 races away from the networks and sends them to a new blend of Amazon Prime and Warner Bros. Discovery/TNT.
As a result, FOX’s handover of NASCAR to NBC, which happens this year on June 9, will take place earlier with Amazon Prime — at some point in May of 2025 — and comes with FOX’s anticipated loss of the marquee Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte, which runs hours after the Indy 500.
In light of FOX’s diminished NASCAR schedule, the onboarding of IndyCar and its late-May Indy 500 could help the network to retain its racing audience after farewelling NASCAR for the rest of the year. It would also give IndyCar the stronger spotlight it has sought during its recent rise in popularity.
With NBC’s shuttering of its NBCSN sports cable channel at the end of 2021, it has attempted to replace its impact through the use of its USA Network and Peacock streaming service, but in both cases, the viewership response for IndyCar has been limited. In FOX, IndyCar could return to a widely-known sports cable home for its non-network rounds and look to expand its presence between races with original FS1 “Race Hub” programming similar to what’s found with NASCAR.
As it explores its options, IndyCar is also seeking an increased payday from its next broadcast partner. IndyCar’s yearly intake from NBC, which is rumored to be in the realm of $20-25 million, can certainly be improved, but could be subject to limited gains.
Other than NASCAR’s new seven-year deal worth an estimated $1.1 billion per season, and Formula 1’s latest contract with ESPN that runs through 2025 and comes with a rumored annual payout to the series in the $75-90 million range, sizable contracts for smaller series like IndyCar have not been on the receiving end of similar financial windfalls.
Another motivating factor for IndyCar to consider with FOX is the newly-announced formation of a vast sports streaming service that will debut in 2025.
The upcoming platform, which excludes NBC/Peacock, features a partnership between FOX, ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery that will “include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, including the men’s and women’s NCAA tournament, as well as golf, tennis and the FIFA World Cup,” according to ESPN.
“It will include offerings from 15 linear networks: ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, truTV. Subscribers would also have the ability to bundle the product with Disney+, Hulu and/or Max.”