INDIANAPOLIS — The 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was the, “most-watched INDYCAR season in 12 years (since 2011). It was also, “NBC Sports’ most-watched season on record, and the most-streamed season ever.” Despite that, only 9 of the 17 races in 2024 will instead air on network NBC.

There’s an interesting factoid in the fact that the 2024 season is the final one under this current contract with NBC Sports. I’m not saying that it played a role in the least amount of points paying races on network television, but who’s to say that it didn’t either?

The wording in the release was catchy but if you dig deeper, you’d see that it’s only 9 points paying races not double digits.

While it says that, “NBC will provide network coverage 12 times during the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season,” and that “it’s the first time in 20 years the INDYCAR SERIES schedule has featured three consecutive years of double-digit events on network television,” I do feel the need to point out that one of those is an All-Star race in Thermal and two more are qualifying days for the Indy 500.

The Indy 500 qualifying days are always like this.

A year after averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.32 million viewers while also marking the third consecutive year of viewership growth across NBC Sports platforms, including a record audience streaming the NTT INDYCAR SERIES on Peacock, the races will be more prevalent on USA.

“It starts with the scheduling and to try to make sure, for example, that there’s great lead-ins before us, and there is some of that as well as the flipside of that where we’re a lead-in to — our racing is a lead-in to, in this case, NASCAR racing. Those things help,” Miles said on more races on USA next season and how to get more eyeballs to the races there.

“Yes, there will be really important solid promotion.

“Look, the world, the media world is changing, and we’re about to get into the process of re-licensing our rights for the 2025 season. Those discussions with lots of interested parties will start in October.

“Who knows; I personally thought that in this early growth mode from an INDYCAR perspective, reach and broadcast windows are really important. I continue to think that.

“But I guarantee you we’re going to hear from all kinds of possible platforms that have interest in INDYCAR racing.

“The world is changing as we’re on this call. I think there will be fewer cable platforms out there by 2025 and major media companies’ attitudes will be evolving.

“Anyway, we’ll do the absolute best we can through a great partnership with NBC. Peacock is really important to them, and it’s been important to us. We wanted to be on a streaming platform, so there’s a couple of those next year, and that keeps growing.

“In many respects, that’s going to be important to the future.”

5 of the 9 NBC races are in the first 6 events. The race after Indy is back on USA which in 2022 saw less than 400k tune in. Before the Olympic break, 3 of the 4 races in July are on NBC.

However, to close the season in the most important stretch, just 1 of the final 6 events is on network NBC. 2 of the 6 are on Peacock only, 3 more on USA.

This past year as an example, 13 of the 17 races were on NBC. 6 of the final 7. In 2022, 14 of the 17 races were on network NBC.

NBC’s 13 races posted a TAD of 1.47 million viewers, up 4% vs. last year’s coverage on NBC (1.42 million, 14 races). Half of the season’s 16 races on television delivered a TAD of more than 1 million viewers, tying last year for the highest mark since 2008.

How much of this is tied to the fact that the TV deal is up for negotiation and INDYCAR could look elsewhere?

NBC Sports deeply values INDYCAR. Is this a way to get what they’re potentially owed for 2024 down?

I mean the 2023 growth comes after a season in 2022 to where the first year of this new TV contract delivered the most-watched INDYCAR season in six years (since 2016) and NBC Sports’ most-watched season on record, an increase of 5% compared to 2021.

A gain in 2022 over 2021 and another a gain in 2023 over 2022.

In saying that, in late July, NASCAR announced that beginning in 2025, the Xfinity Series will move to The CW in a lucrative new contract. The deal runs through 2031 and reportedly pays $800 million in total.

That’s a massive deal that will pay dividends for the series. However, my brain got to thinking then, could this indirectly help the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in their next batch of negotiations?

With these 2023 numbers, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

They’re operating on their second contract with NBC Sports which is worth far less than what the Xfinity Series is going to get moving forward. That deal ends next season though as the negotiating window may open up this offseason.

With the Xfinity Series garnering similar ratings to INDYCAR and them getting that much of a bump up in pay, what can this do for INDYCAR in their next set of negotiations?

The Xfinity Series competes in 33 races for which INDYCAR is nearly half of that with 17. So, there’s a per race factor in this process, but still, I don’t think a deal like this could hurt INDYCAR when Amazon was reportedly bidding for some NASCAR races. Plus, INDYCAR has the 100 Days to Indy Show on The CW already which if they’re actively adding more and more sporting programs, wouldn’t them taking a shot at getting an INDYCAR contract be beneficial to the network too?

They have a streaming platform and cable so it could hit both markets and I’m not saying INDYCAR is going to get $800 million, but at least they can get double to what they’re making now, if not WAY more.

There’s more value in INDYCAR in that you have the Indy 500 carrot you can dangle too.

“We certainly had every intention of renewing INDYCAR,” NBC Sports’ President, John Miller said in announcing the lately renewal with the series in 2021. “We’ve had a great relationship with them that goes all the way back to 2009 when NBC SN was originally called Versus, and then it became NBC SN, and all we had were the cable races.

“And we made a pretty strong pitch to Mark and the INDYCAR leadership that we felt that we could do a lot for the sport if we could have it all under one umbrella. And they went with us starting in 2019, we showed them what we could do with the 500. We’ve shown consistent growth.

“I think you’ve got some of the brightest young races and most competitive racing out there. Week-in, week-out, we see great rating wherever we have an INDYCAR race on with recognizable names who are becoming bigger and bigger stars out there.

“We find that it fits into a very good, tight two-and-a-half hour, three-hour window which we think is important.

“Actually Indy narrow fits very nicely into our schedule. There are 17 races that we can accommodate, as opposed to there are some other properties that we have like the Premiere League which lasts for ten months which basically goes from August to May.

“So every property is different. We look at them and evaluate them in a variety of different ways but we certainly saw the ratings growth. We saw it was getting younger. We see the way advertisers and marketers are gravitating towards this sport. We see the way they are gravitating towards the property itself and the tracks, and we felt this was the right — right sport to make a bet on.”

If he’s saying that in 2021, imagine what he’d say in 2024 with a contract up for negotiation. But, with 9 races on network NBC, there’s a real risk that INDYCAR’s TV numbers could go down in 2024 in comparison to 2023.

There’s another layer to this too and that’s with the NASCAR Cup Series contract also being bided on as well, there’s a chance that NBC Sports could lose NASCAR all together. The Truck Series has an exclusive deal with Fox Sports for their entire schedule. Now the Xfinity Series moves onto The CW for an entire season.

The Cup Series is going to get another bump in pay and we know Amazon, The CW, ESPN/ABC and maybe even a few others are trying to move in on Fox Sports and NBC Sports’ deal. What if they do?

That could leave INDYCAR as the only motorsports left for NBC Sports which in turn gives NBC Sports a lot more money to throw INDYCAR’s way out of desperation, especially if INDYCAR opens dialogue with those other networks too. Hence this new move for 9 races on network NBC.

You would think that they may want to renew this agreement earlier so INDYCAR isn’t seeking out other networks to bid on them.

Mark Miles said in the last time they negotiated, that they did look outside of NBC Sports, but it’s also going to take a lot to supplant INDYCAR away from NBC Sports too.

“We did, as we said before, take the time to understand the marketplace, and what the interest of others might look like, but you know, for us, whether it’s this media partnership or important sponsor relationships, the incumbent is always going to win ties, and there wasn’t a tie,” Miles said. “NBC, it ended up in the agreement that really offered a superior choice.”

Miles and Miller have a long history of working together than spans three decades, so you can see that this is an important deal for all sides.

Which further means that INDYCAR which has the Indy 500 and 16 other races that feature similar ratings in those events in comparison to the Xfinity Series and NASCAR’s version of AAA is getting $800 million spread across seven seasons.

INDYCAR has a lot to offer by virtue of that.

Which is why I feel like this means that the next TV deal puts the ball in the court of NBC Sports. They’re a great partner for INDYCAR but INDYCAR is on the verge of a breakout and a massive TV contract is just what the series needs to propel them further forward.

We keep talking a 3rd OEM, but when you race in front of practically sellout crowds everywhere you go, have the most competitive series in the world and now can muster dare I say $200 million TV deal, this series is set for a massive breakout.