On Thursday Fox Sports and IndyCar made an announcement officially unveiling their new agreement that sees America’s top open-wheel racing series on the move.
After several years in partnership with NBC, IndyCar is making the move to Fox and picking up a huge victory for the future growth of the series along the way. In the new rights deal, IndyCar will see all 17 of their races and two Indianapolis 500 qualifying sessions on over-the-air broadcast television on Fox. IndyCar becomes the only racing series that can now provide the maximum reach to fans.
While the sports world races to streaming platforms with seemingly every other league seeing their rights split amongst dozens of platforms for spare parts, it’s a fascinating counter play from Fox and IndyCar to make a full throttle commitment to having every race on one broadcast network beginning in 2025.
Via Fox Sports:
INDYCAR and FOX Sports today announce the new exclusive home of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and the iconic Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge beginning in 2025. The new media rights deal provides a massive and unprecedented increase in exposure for North America’s premier open-wheel racing series, with every 2025 race airing on FOX and available on the FOX Sports app. FOX Deportes will carry exclusive Spanish-language television coverage with a schedule to be announced at a later date.
FOX will also provide coverage of Indy 500 qualifications on both Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total number of broadcast network windows to 19, a new record for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. INDYCAR will become the only premier motorsport in the United States with exclusive major broadcast network coverage for all of its races.
IndyCar will receive a huge boost in exposure, which is arguably what Roger Penske was after most for the series. To put IndyCar receiving 19 broadcast network windows in perspective, the new NASCAR contract signed with Fox covering 2025-2031 calls for just five of 14 Cup series races to be on big Fox with nine of 14 races to be aired on FS1.
With NASCAR also airing races on partners like TNT, Amazon Prime, and NBC’s various platforms, IndyCar will have arguably better exposure throughout their entire season than NASCAR, even though the latter series has way more races. The IndyCar schedule also ends in August before the NFL and college football seasons kick into high gear in another nice bit of timing for Fox.
The schedule also works very nicely for Fox with IndyCar being a great compliment to their NASCAR coverage. IndyCar reaches the bulk of their schedule in the summer months when Fox will end their televised portion of the NASCAR season, passing the baton off at the All-Star Race the week before Fox will air their first Indy 500. Fox could have done an amazing doubleheader of racing on Memorial Day Sunday with the Indy 500-Coca Cola 600 double, but Amazon Prime will begin their NASCAR era with the 600 next May. However, Fox will be able to boast the two biggest races in the country with the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 as tentpoles in their new schedule.
