NASCAR secures new TV partner in lucrative broadcast deal

NASCAR is set to announce a new multi-year extended TV broadcast rights deal for its premier Cup Series on Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the deal, beginning with the 2025 Cup Series season, FOX Sports will broadcast the first 14 races of the season.

Current partner NBC will broadcast the final 14 races of the season. The middle ten races of the season will be split between TNT and a streaming partner that is expected to be Amazon.

Terms of the deal including length and amount were unclear as of Tuesday.

An official announcement is expected at 5 p.m. EST. on Wednesday in Nashville, where NASCAR is holding its end of the year awards ceremony.

NASCAR’s current broadcast deal with Fox Sports and NBC expires at the end of the 2024 season and first went into effect in 2015. It was estimated at the time to be worth $8.2 billion over its 10-year duration.

Under NASCAR’s current charter deal with its Cup Series teams, TV revenue is split 65 percent for tracks, 25 percent for teams and 10 percent for NASCAR. That deal also expires at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

NASCAR and its Cup teams have yet to reach agreement on a renewal of the charter system, which is expected to include a change in the revenue distribution with a greater percentage going toward the teams.

The Cup Series TV deal comes on the heels of NASCAR’s previous announcement over the summer regarding broadcast rights of its second-tier Xfinity Series.

In July, NASCAR announced a seven-year deal with the CW Network to televise Xfinity Series races beginning with the 2025 season. The package is reportedly worth over $115 million a year. It marks the first time in the series’ history all its races will be broadcast on free, over-the-air broadcast television. Additional content will be provided on CW’s digital platforms.

Most recently, Fox and NBC have split the broadcast of the Xfinity season much like the current Cup deal structure between the two networks. MotorSport