- At least two companies have shown interest in second-tier package
- Nascar also looking to offer package of mid-summer races
- Amazon reportedly the favourite for streaming packages
Nascar’s Xfinity Series looks set to have its media rights snapped up exclusively by a streaming company, according to Sports Business Journal (SBJ).
The second tier of the US stock car racing series has traditionally been packaged together with the main Cup Series rights, with the current US$8.2 billion, ten-year agreement with Fox Sports and NBC Sports expiring in 2024.
SBJ reports that at least two companies have shown interest in the second-tier racing property and the Xfinity Series may not be the only diversion into streaming for Nascar as a whole.
Previous reports have indicated that Nascar is opening to offering a mid-summer package of races, similar to the six-race package carried by the Warner Bros-owned TNT until 2014.
Amazon is reportedly the favourite to land these streaming packages, with Nascar's interest in streaming platforms piqued by Prime Video's audience numbers for the National Football League (NFL) broadcasts, proving the technology is now robust enough to handle high viewer traffic.
BlackBook says…
The media landscape now is very different to when Nascar initially cut its ten-year deal with Fox and NBC, a time when cable and satellite television dominated more than 100 million homes in the US. This number has now fallen to around 80 million homes.
The creation of these new digital packages should assist the stock car racing series in generating more value through its next media rights deal, which currently sits at US$820 million per year, according to SBJ.
Following the ground broken by Amazon's Thursday night game streaming deal with the National Football League (NFL), the blockbuster agreement signed by Apple and Major League Soccer (MLS) is evidence that digital-focused packages can be made to work.