We all knew it was coming. When the NTT INDYCAR Series and NBC Sports announced a new contract to keep the major open wheel series housed on the NBC Sports platform, it was also unveiled that 1 of the races would exclusively be streamed on Peacock only.
It didn’t sound all that bad then. Everyone was okay with at the time. 13 races (now it’s 14) being aired on network NBC with a trade off being 1 of the 17 in total being on Peacock. Well that’s where we are now. We’ve arrived at the Peacock race and there’s a lot of fans complaining.
Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto (3 p.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network) only airs on Peacock. It’s not like this has been a huge secret and we didn’t have a years notice that this was coming.
I hear you on the streaming only platform though, but that’s where this is headed. You can complain all you want but why waste that space in your brain to do something that’s coming no matter if you like it or not. Whomever can figure out a way and how to do this first and make it work for both sides, will get a hefty payday. It’s why Amazon, Netflix and other streaming platforms are interested in airing live sports.
To make it work, you have to make yourself wanted. It costs money. This race is behind a paywall. Which is why this is a trial here by both parties. Let’s see if this works. They know they’re not going to get 1-million people to tune in. I doubt we’ll even get to 500k. However, if it increases the subscribers to Peacock more than there were last week, then this is what NBC Sports was aiming for. That’s win.
It has people talking that’s for sure.
Peacock is a valuable tool and one that for only $4.99 a month, you get all the practice sessions, all the qualifying sessions and you can even watch every race here too. You also get live Indy Lights races for the entire season as well.
I’m not just saying this without any baseless commentary. I’m saying this because I have Peacock personally. I bought it 2 years ago to help my INDYCAR coverage for when I’m not at the track. I can assure you all that I don’t have some free login from INDYCAR or another source to stream Peacock on my TV’s at my house Indiana. I pay for this out of my own bank account. It’s literally only $4.99 per month. That’s what I pay. It’s worth it too.
On top of that, they archive each session rather quickly as well. I mean like within hours. So if you’re at the race or maybe you’re too busy and can’t catch a practice, or qualifying or even the race live, you don’t need to DVR or record it, Peacock has it up not long after the event is completed.
A personal example, during the Month of May, I took my 2 boys to opening day. I worked the morning from the media center then left midday and went to pick them up from school and took them back out. We stayed until the track closed for practice at 6 p.m. ET. A 40 minute drive back south to my house, another 20 minutes to eat dinner and by time I turned on Peacock to see if the practice session was there, it was already up.
Practice was over at 6 and by time the boys had their little 1:64 scale INDYCAR’s playing on the floor in my living room, the sounds of INDYCAR’s from opening day of Indy 500 practice at IMS was already playing on the replay show on Peacock. All 6 hours of it too.
They also save all the races too so you can go pretty far back to watch older races that NBC Sports aired. For nights when you’re not doing much or maybe your kids want something on in the background while they’re playing cars, Peacock is it.
You also get all the Dale Jr. Downloads which are phenomenal by the way as well as Motor Mouths, Lost Speedway’s, the Grassroots racing and other NBC shows all in one place. It has movies, TV series and a bunch of kids content to make this $4.99 worthwhile.
To be honest, we watch Peacock more than we watch our Hulu.
So, how to watch:
Subscribe to Peacock Here
Other Ways to Watch Sunday’s Race Here
Race Review Online 