Come summer 2025, look for NASCAR to start streaming on Prime Video, while conducting a first-of-its-kind in-season tournament for the NASCAR Cup Series™ featuring a bracket-style, head-to-head event across TNT Sports. The full five-race schedule will be set by results from the final three seeding races that will stream on Prime Video. Think, in-season Champions League and NBA Cup meets Match Madness bracketology, when 32 drivers compete in a bracket-style competition. It only gets better because driver head-to-head matches are used to determine which driver and crew advance in the bracket. The financial kicker is the winner earns a $1 million cash prize. The Sports Techie community blog continues to cover digital media rights stories as more and more sport viewers have cut the cord and only stream content, with live sports at the top. To meet this growing demand, in November of 2023, NASCAR agreed to a new seven-year media rights agreements for the NASCAR Cup Series with four best-in-class distribution partners – FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon’s Prime Video and TNT Sports, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery – to deliver live coverage of all 38 NASCAR Cup Series races, beginning in 2025 and extending through the 2031 season. Chances are you won’t ever get a closer NASCAR photo finish between two racers than what happened at the Kansas Speedway on May, 05, and the sports technology that went through an evolution to determine who won by 0.001 seconds, the closest in series’ history. If it can happen, the in-season tourney and bracket will make it so on TNT Sports and Prime Video, respectively.
“With the launch of our new media rights partnerships in 2025, we were excited to partner with Prime Video and TNT Sports to collaborate on fan engagement concepts that drive storylines in our sport and innovation from a production perspective,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR SVP, Media and Productions. “The idea of an in-season tournament has been discussed within the NASCAR industry and as we started to focus on adding promotional elements that drive interest throughout the season, we were excited by the opportunity to leverage the marketing weight of Amazon and TNT Sports to bring this concept to life.
In-Season Tourney Meets Bracket-Mania
All drivers are eligible for the seeding races which will take place during the final three races of Prime Video’s coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series. The top 32 drivers based on the seeding events, will become eligible for the in-season tournament competition. Bracket seeding will be established by best finish in each race over the three races with the tiebreakers determined by the next-best finish, followed by season points position.
Herbst added, “Having head-to-head driver matchups for each one of TNT’s NASCAR Cup Series races will add a compelling fan engagement element across media platforms like TNT, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and NASCAR digital platforms.”
The tournament kicks off with the first event in the TNT Sports portion of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Drivers will compete head-to-head with the higher finishing driver of each race advancing over five rounds. The winner of the tournament will receive a $1 million prize.
“It’s never been a better time to be a fan of motorsports, and this new first-ever in-season tournament will bring a new competitive dynamic to NASCAR’s summer race weekends,” said Craig Barry, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, TNT Sports. “TNT Sports has always been at the forefront of creativity and innovation, and NASCAR is a perfect partner to bring this vision to life across our networks and platforms.”
Prime Video and TNT Sports will evenly split a series of 10 midseason races. Both also own the exclusive rights to select practice and qualifying sessions for the NASCAR Cup Series schedule through 2031.
“We’re excited to be part of NASCAR’s first in-season tournament next season,” said Charlie Neiman, Head of Sports Partnerships, Prime Video. “This tournament will showcase the league’s ability to drive innovation and engage fans with increased competition during a key part of the NASCAR schedule.”
NASCAR’s first fully direct-to-consumer partner, Prime Video will stream practice and qualifying live for the first half of the season through their last race of the midseason series with the exceptions of the Busch Light Clash, DAYTONA 500® and NASCAR All-Star Race™, which remain on FOX Sports.
TNT Sports will initiate its coverage with the next five midseason races, all part of the NASCAR Cup Series in-season tournament, simultaneously broadcast live on TNT and streaming on the B/R Sports Add-On on Max. Practice and qualifying for the remainder of the season will stream on Max and air on truTV.
TNT Sports
TNT Sports is a global leader in the delivery of premium sports content. The TNT Sports U.S. portfolio includes expansive, multi-platform partnerships with the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, National Hockey League, United States Soccer Federation and NASCAR (coming in 2025). Owned and operated platforms are highlighted by Bleacher Report, the #1 digital destination for young sports fans, along with House of Highlights, HighlightHER, Golf Digest, and a full suite of digital and social portfolio brands. Additionally, TNT Sports co-manages NBA Digital — comprised of NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE Pass, the NBA App and NBAGLEAGUE.com — as well as NCAA.com and NCAA March Madness Live. TNT Sports in Europe and the Republic of Ireland includes partnerships with the NBA, Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UFC, WWE and more, as well as much-loved brands Eurosport, Global Cycling Network (GCN), Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN) and multi-sport programming and content on discovery+ and Discovery’s free-to-air TV networks.
Prime Video Sports
Prime Video supports a growing lineup of live sports globally, including Thursday Night Football, NASCAR, the New York Yankees, Seattle Kraken, Overtime Elite, and Premier Boxing Champions in the United States; the NWSL, the WNBA, and ONE Championship in the United States and Canada; NHL in Canada; UEFA Champions League football in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy; Roland-Garros and Ligue 1 in France; New Zealand Cricket in India; as well as Copa do Brasil football and the NBA in Brazil. While availability varies by marketplace, fans can also subscribe to streaming services such as Sportsnet, Eurosport, FOX Sports (Mexico), Viaplay Sport, MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, NBA TV, DAZN (Germany and Spain), and Premiere FC (Brazil) through Prime Video Channels. This is in addition to a selection of Amazon Original sports documentaries including Kelce, Bye Bye Barry, Coach Prime, Giannis, and the Amazon Original All or Nothing franchise.
Get more information at www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR social handles on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X and Snapchat platforms.
Sports Techie, as a former contributor for NASCAR, I like to stay in the sports tech mix with it, read more about the NASCAR Speed Hub With Roblox, NASCAR and the Boy’s & Girl’s Club of America’s online STEM platform, the new NASCAR Production HQ, and this 2015 blog regarding NASCAR’s Partnership with DraftKings DFS.
Does signing with NASCAR mean TNT Sports perhaps knew in advance they would almost certainly lose their current NBA media rights that dates back 35-years, as it is looking more and more like Comcast may win the next media rights package with a $2.5 billion bid. The end of, Inside the NBA, is hard to imagine.
NASCAR is obviously fine with further diversifying their media partners to now include FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Prime Video and TNT Sports.
Putting on a trendy in-season tourney, and streaming for fans that prefer that delivery option, are new fan engagement concepts that should prove to be successful for both TNT Sports and Prime Video.
Here is to hoping the recent 0.001 second photo NASCAR finish in Kansas City is indeed breakable, just like TNT Sports; reign seems to be with the NBA.
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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