As the renewal negotiations with NASCAR, Fox, and NBC concluded on Monday, the racing racer is contemplating the idea that it could accept offers of other broadcasters. NASCAR executives have scheduled meetings with a number of other digital media companies earlier this week to talk about expanding out into streaming.
NASCAR has previously expressed a cautious desire in entering a stream service when it renewed its contract in 2013. According to a source in the past, in 2021, NASCAR’s senior vice president for Media and Productions Brian Herbst stated:
“Some streaming element is likely to exist in place and will be a bigger part in the upcoming deal cycle. If you look back at the time we signed our TV contracts in 2012, 2013 in 2012 and 2013 there were only two platforms that our content was to be made available to… In the present there’s another bucket and that’s direct-to consumer or over-the top platforms. The balance for us as athletes is that there’s a third economic driver, which wasn’t in place in 2013, or 2012. which is the OTT platforms.”
Since then, numerous streaming platforms have included sports in their offerings, such as Amazon, AppleTV, DIRECTV, Hulu Plus Live, Sling TV, YouTube Tv, Roku, and FuboTV to mention several. NBC recently introduced GolfPass which is which is a streaming service. ION has added WNB matches to its roster also, so the idea of bringing NASCAR into the realm of streaming is within the realm of possibilities.
There’s no information yet about the streaming platforms NASCAR might be considering taking offers from. The organization seems to be keeping its options open when choosing a national streaming service. NASAR team owners could play an integral part in this decision-making process, since the move could be a cause of lower viewership when they try to negotiate a higher profit percentage due to lower sponsorship agreements.
