The NASCAR Cup Series grid is set for the Round of 8 playoffs. The 2025 regular season saw many thrilling moments, like Ross Chastain’s victory at the Coca-Cola 600 crown jewel race or Chase Briscoe’s steady rise in a new team and a new OEM. Now, the thrill will dial up a notch with heartbroken drivers trimmed out and hopeful rivals en route to a title battle. All this excitement has been showcased by the sport’s unique TV deal.

NASCAR signed a $7.7 billion media rights deal in late 2023, stirring a buzz among fans. What resulted was a mixed result, featuring both notable highs and lows. Despite the varied reception and consequences, a top executive highlighted the camaraderie that made it all happen.

NASCAR’s partners thrived on cooperation

Diehard NASCAR fans experienced novel experiments in 2025. For instance, the sport’s collaboration with Amazon Prime introduced streaming to NASCAR fans. Despite initial forecasts downplaying Prime’s impact, the media giant had a phenomenal reception. The reasons lie in unique features like a double-box commercial format or a comprehensive post-race coverage. In contrast to the major cable ecosystem of Fox Sports 1 and USA Network, NASCAR wanted to diversify its content distribution strategy. And the secret to success in implementing this was good teamwork.

NASCAR joined hands with five media partners – Fox, Amazon Prime, Warner Bros., TNT Sports, and NBC. This medley of different media giants initially seemed tricky in handling a 38-race Cup Series schedule. Brian Herbst, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Media & Revenue Officer, broached this topic recently. “It’s been pretty rewarding to see it come together, frankly,” he said. “2023 was the rights negotiation itself. 2024 was all the parts and pieces on the production side, divisional responsibilities, like how do these five partners work together from a marketing and promotion perspective?”

At the end of the day, what resulted was a meticulous collaboration that led to cool moments. Like the wildly popular Coke 600 or the In-Season Tournament, where Ty Dillon stole the spotlight. Herbst continued, “I think seeing it come together this year, with handouts to Fox to Amazon, Amazon to TNT, and now TNT to NBC and USA – a lot of choreography and details behind the scenes to get that right. When you get cool moments like the Amazon launch at the Coca-Cola 600, for instance. That set right behind the fans…The In-Season challenge from Atlanta…was pretty rewarding from the fans’ perspective. So it’s been fun.”

Yet frankly, the sport has not fared very well in terms of viewership this season. One reason for that also lies in the diversity of options that NASCAR had.

Looking forward to a solution

Granted, the availability of unique TV options can be exciting. For instance, Amazon Prime roped in younger fans – the average age of Prime watchers was 56.1, nearly 7 years younger than audiences who watched the first 12 races of 2025. However, the downside of having too many options for viewers is also heavy. The move to split races among broadcast partners led to an average viewership of 2.445 million viewers across 32 points races. That is a 17.6% decrease from the 2.966 million average through the first 32 points races of 2024. Significant low points were the Pocono race, which saw a 22% drop, and the New Hampshire event, which registered a 28% drop.

Hence, fans have severely criticized NASCAR’s eclectic media deal featuring multiple partners. And Jessica Forrest, Group VP of Nielsen Sports, was candid about this situation. “Today’s sports are more accessible than they’ve ever been, but it’s also harder to watch sports than it’s ever been – bouncing back and forth between the apps and the subscriptions, regional networks, streaming, linear. I think what I’m anxious to see is how does the industry adapt to that and how does the industry alleviate some of that frustration for the viewer, and make it easier to watch sports and know where to go to find sports?”

Evidently, all is not hunky dory with NASCAR’s media rights deal. With criticism ramping up among fans, let’s see if any moves are on the way for the next season.