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We’ve known for a while now that the TV rights package for the NTT IndyCar Series would be up for bid this season. NBC’s current contract runs out after the end of the 2024 IndyCar season. NBC has been the exclusive broadcast partner for IndyCar since the start of the 2019 season. NBC signed a three-year deal initially. That contract was set to expire at the end of the 2021 season, but a new deal was announced in July of 2021 – extending NBC through the 2024 season.

These two three-year deals have seemed to go quickly. If you like the TV partner, they always do. If you don’t like them, those years seem to drag as you endure each race telecast.

In the summer of 2008, IndyCar announced a cable deal with Versus to go into affect in 2009. ABC would still broadcast the Indianapolis 500, along with four other races of their choosing, but the remaining races would be sent to cable on Versus.

IndyCar fans were furious, seeing it as a slap in the face that the series had been relegated to an obscure channel that no one was even certain if their cable provider carried. What was worse was that it was a ten-year deal (a lifetime in the TV world), saddling the series with coverage on what used to be OLN – the Outdoor Life Network, before it was rebranded by Comcast as Versus.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky, than good. What looked like a horrible deal for IndyCar going in, ended up looking like a stroke of genius. A couple of years after the IndyCar/Versus deal went into affect, Comcast bought NBC. The channel formerly known as OLN, underwent a second rebrand and was to be renamed NBC Sports Network, or NBCSN.

The Versus IndyCar broadcasts were very well done, and fans preferred them to the ABC broadcasts. But telling casual fans our races were on Versus was sort of like owning a Yugo in the 80s. It got you around, but you were embarrassed to tell anyone about it. When Versus was rebranded as NBCSN, the network suddenly attained instant credibility. Through more luck than anything else, IndyCar had two top networks carrying their races. ABC had gotten stale in their approach, but NBC appeared innovative and enthusiastic.

Once ABC was out and NBC took over the entire package, many fans turned on them. Suddenly fans complained about so many commercials and poor camera work. The announcing crews that were so popular before 2019, were suddenly awful. Then, of course, there were the various platforms introduced – NBC Sports Gold, then Peacock – that drew the ire of fans. Keep in mind that every other network and sports property was going to some type of streaming platform – but that didn’t matter. IndyCar and NBC were evil and greedy, in the eyes of a lot of fans.

I’ve gone on the record many times that I am a fan of NBC’s coverage of the NTT IndyCar Series, and I want the series to remain on NBC for the foreseeable future. They do a good job, give us plenty of content on race weekends and fans know where to look every weekend. If you are a Peacock subscriber, every second of IndyCar broadcast time can be watched live on Peacock, or viewed later. I see no reason to change. Change is Bad!

I was fairly certain that this was how things would settle out for the next TV deal. A few alternatives like The CW or Amazon would give a pitch to make things interesting, but when the dust settled – NBC would be left standing to broadcast IndyCar going forward.

But then Marshall Pruett, of Racer.com, wrote an article last week saying that FOX had emerged as a serious contender for the IndyCar TV package. It’s good to know that another credible and major network is sincerely interested in the sport we love. That means there may be a lot more value to the rights package than some of the Legions of the Miserable were claiming.

I’m not opposed to the idea of IndyCar using FOX as leverage to get a better deal out of NBC, but I’m not sure I like the idea of all IndyCar races being over on what I still consider the upstart fourth network.

Those my age and slightly younger, remember when FOX was launched – probably around 1986. They had The Simpsons, The Arsenio Hall Show and The Joan Rivers Show; and a lot of bad and unwatchable programming. They were struggling for recognition and credibility for several years. Then in 1993, they threw a Hail Mary – they bid on, and won, the NFC package of the NFL; unseating CBS in the process. Keep in mind, FOX didn’t even have a sports department at the time. They threw serious cash at the NFL, and the league bit.

Though they were fledgling, they paid (and sometimes overpaid) for on-air talent, and behind-the-scenes producers and technicians to jump ship from ESPN, CBS, NBC and TNT for their initial season in 1994 – including the legendary Pat Sumerall and John Madden. Acquiring the NFL from CBS gave FOX instant credibility, and the other networks were forced to get out of their comfort zones and take notice. FOX gave us the first constant score and game clock in the corner of the screen. Then they gave us down and distance. By the end of the 90s, they had invented the first-down stripe that is taken for granted today.

Over the years, they acquired an NHL package and Major League Baseball. In 2001, they started broadcasting NASCAR and did a great job. Their first race was the 2001 Daytona 500, in which Dale Earnhardt was fatally injured. Regardless of the tragic circumstances, FOX was praised for their coverage and how they handled the situation. In the span of six or seven years, FOX had gone from not even having a sports department to the trendsetter in sports broadcasting.

But somewhere along the way, FOX went from innovative to gimmicky and in a short amount of time. Remember the glowing hockey puck? Some fans said it made the game much easier to follow. I just found it extremely distracting. They also brought transponder labels to each car. While many found them informative, I put them in the category of Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It reeked of simply trying to show off their snazzy graphics.

In my opinion, out of the four networks – FOX is my least favorite for sports. Their NFL Sunday morning studio show is unwatchable. It’s not a football show, it’s a comedy show that is very unfunny. Their cartoon graphics of players has bled over into their NASCAR coverage. A friend texted me last week, asking if I was ready to see the FOX robot dancing on the Yard of Bricks at IMS. I shuddered at the thought, as I read his text. (Photo: FOX Sports)

As much as I dislike the FOX robot, I have even more disdain for Digger, the gopher they created to tout their “Gopher Cam”, which is nothing more than the lipstick camera that legendary motorsports producer Terry Lingner developed for inside Turn One for the 1993 Indianapolis 500 telecast. More than a decade later, FOX acted like this was their revolutionary invention, that was so great – they created a cartoon character for it. (Photo: FOX Sports)

I have always liked FOX racing announcer Mike Joy. He is a professional and comes across as a good guy. But the rest of the FOX booth and Hollywood Hotel folks act like they are all frustrated comedians. No one grated on my last nerve like Darrell Waltrip – unless it was his younger brother, Michael. The cast of on-air clowns seem to think that they are the reason for fans turning in, and not the races.

Do we really want that kind of gimmickry being brought to IndyCar? For all we know, they are the ones that lobbied NASCAR to adopt the Lucky Dog, green-white-checkers, stage racing and playoffs – thinking that all of those evils would improve ratings. My initial reaction is, No Thanks!

For some reason, though – Mark Miles and Roger Penske have not asked me my opinion on a potential new TV partner. If they did, I would encourage them to look at what NBC has done for the series over the years. Many despise it, but I’m a fan of Peacock. If an oval race goes long or has to be run on the next day, like at what happened in Daytona last weekend – where will FOX put it? NBC can move it to Peacock. FOX Sports has an app. Will it go there? FOX does not have a conventional streaming app, like Peacock or Paramount+. They own the ad-supported app called Tubi. Will it go over there? There is the new FOX-Warner Bros/ Discovery-ESPN sports app that was announced a couple of weeks ago; but that is way off in the distance and some think anti-trust litigation will prevent it from seeing the light of day.

For all of these reasons, and many more – if all things are close to being equal, my vote is to stick with NBC. Change is Bad!

George Phillips

This entry was posted on February 21, 2024 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.