There could be some “significant change” coming to IndyCar’s broadcasting rights, and it is “not merely a ploy to squeeze a few extra dollars out of NBC executives,” according to Nathan Brown of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR. Sources said that entering this season, Fox has “all but signed on the dotted line, leaving NBC with a lame duck season,” but in the week’s since its race in St. Petersburg, sources now say that the situation has “floated closer to a 70-30 or 60-40 split in favor of Fox.” A source said NBC “remains alive” -- with the understanding that IndyCar has been “offered as many, if not more, network windows than the 10 lined up for 2024. Sources added that it would “likely come” with a “marginal increase” to rights fees that reportedly hover between $20M and $25M. Brown notes Fox is believed to be “offering fewer network windows,” with the rest of IndyCar’s 17-race schedule potentially left to be spread between its “relatively high-profile sports-centric cable arm, FS1, and its far less popular FS2.” Sources said that they believe a jump into the $30M to $35M range with Fox would “help counterbalance the significant loss of network windows.” Brown writes should Fox land the deal, some wonder if Penske Entertainment “could use the upcoming Long Beach weekend, positioned in the sports media giant’s backyard, for an unveiling.” For Fox, this proposition comes at a time where it is “bracing for a Memorial Day Weekend Sunday in 2025 without a marquee racing event for the first time since it began airing NASCAR races in 2001” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 4/5).
