They know that their streaming and TV deals are all over the place.
Let's talk about NASCAR's direct rival in the US motorsports market, Formula 1. The sport has a standard streaming deal with Apple TV. With that, they direct all their audience to one single platform without having to pay for more services. If we compare them to NASCAR, on the other hand, a major problem starts to arise. The pinnacle of stock car racing has divided its entire season into multiple media deals.
Sometimes, the audience needs to subscribe to ESPN; sometimes, they need to switch to Amazon Prime, and other times, the audience has to look for alternative services to finish watching the broadcast. Moreover, there's a lot of cut content involved, which doesn't get streamed on specific services and their standard tiers. This makes NASCAR watching an incredibly complex process for the viewers, and their television/streaming bills keep touching the ceiling.
The variation is a short-term experiment for a better future
The fans have expressed a lot of dissent for the way NASCAR handles their broadcast deal. It's quite natural that any serious fan would hate having to spend a full day creating a complete schedule of when to start a subscription and when to switch to a new one to have the perfect race day experience.
Additionally, the majority of the NASCAR fanbase consists of elderly people who have been following the sport all the way into their 50s. So that makes the streaming and broadcast deals a huge negative when it comes to the promotion of the sport. With multiple partners, it becomes harder to spin a narrative due to the different direction styles of different media houses.
During an exclusive with CNBC, Steve O'Donnell readily accepted this shortcoming. "Longer-term, you know we'll see where it goes. I don't think we want to go all streaming right away, but we want to make sure that, you know, we're in front of as many eyeballs as possible."
He suggested that it was a short-term plan and they were looking forward to a more streamlined approach. In the end, their goal is to capture all the attention possible. Maybe the Cup Series would greatly benefit from a single partner. They could take notes from the in-house O'Reilly Series. The CW has done a great job with the NOAPS, spinning its story as a championship, which becomes the proving ground for the youngsters against the very best in the business. A similar take on the Cup Series would improve the coverage by leaps and bounds.
