NASCAR World Erupts Over Collaboration With $1 Trillion Tech Giant; But Fans Have 1 Key Issue

Published 01/30/2023, 2:35 PM EST
For any major sport, one of the most important things is television and broadcast rights. After all, even if a sports venue is packed to the rafters, you cannot physically accommodate every racing fan watching the said events. That is where the broadcasting rights come in, to help bring the sports action to fans who cannot be there. When it comes to NASCAR, Fox Sports and NBC Sports have the rights, and I expect a new deal on the horizon.
However, in the current age, a new player has joined the party to vie for the rights, according to the Sports Business Journal. It is none other than the $1 trillion tech giant, Amazon, mostly via Amazon Prime. Nowadays, streaming sports events has been rising in popularity, and Amazon definitely wants to cash in. So while Fox Sports and NBC Sports are pursuing contract extensions, Amazon could be targeting a different package. For the moment, NASCAR is not playing ball, but how long until they actually relent?
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Amazon’s interest garnered mixed reactions from NASCAR fans
Of course, social media was all abuzz when the rumours of Amazon’s interest began. A fair number of fans were pretty excited about the prospect of this happening. Many acknowledged that Amazon could probably do a better job of broadcasting than the US TV networks. Others believed that while Fox and NBC Sports could have the TV rights, Amazon should have exclusive streaming rights. One thing is for sure, the general consensus was that Amazon’s involvement would be ‘Epic’ and fans could not wait to see races on Prime Video.
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On the other end of the spectrum, some people brought up a few concerns. The biggest one is about the streaming content being hidden behind a paywall. After all, there have been so many occasions where subscribers had to pay money just to watch their favorite shows or programmes. Other concerns were that they would love for Amazon to be streaming around the same time as Fox and/or NBC Sports.
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Some were even worried about people making fleeting statements about being willing to pay for streaming. They were scared that if such statements were casually thrown about, it could very much become a reality.
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