Back on Tuesday, INDYCAR announced that they have reached a new agreement with NBC Sports that will keep INDYCAR in the NBC Sports for the next few years.  In many ways, it's a step up for INDYCAR, but a step back in others.

The dissolution of NBCSN at the end of 2021 (which I still believe is a bad idea) meant that a lot of series are going to be scrambling for where their events will be shown.  INDYCAR was in trouble for a time.  If someone showed me the news piece above six months ago, I would have been skeptical.

It seemed like INDYCAR was one foot out of the door at NBC Sports for quite a while.  The thought was they could have been going to CBS, but CBS made it clear that they weren't interested in expanding their auto racing offerings beyond SRX, Formula E and other series such as SRO America that air on CBS Sports Network.

Eventually, they worked their way back to NBC Sports and renegotiated their deal.  Overall, the NTT IndyCar Series will get more visibility out of this deal than their current one.  Starting next year, 13 races will air live on NBC, a significant increase over the current deal.  The remaining events will be split between USA and Peacock.  There will also be three races on Telemundo Deportes, including the Indianapolis 500.

The Peacock part of the deal is bound to tick a lot of people off.  As you're likely already aware, Peacock is NBCUniversal's streaming service, which provides access to a library of past and present TV shows, movies and sports programming.  I fully admit to subscribing to the service a year ago when it launched to non-Comcast subscribers.  As of now, all NTT IndyCar Series practice sessions are streamed live there, along with Indy Lights races.  Qualifying has been split this year between NBCSN and Peacock.  Some sessions are live on both, while others have been live on Peacock and tape-delayed on NBCSN.  The latter could still happen next year, but with USA being in play, the repeat might be deep into DVR Theater time.

What is really going to anger fans is that two races next season will be exclusive to Peacock.  I don't know which ones they will be because (among other reasons) we don't have a 2022 schedule yet.  

Unfortunately, Peacock has some issues.  Anyone who is a wrestling fan (I'm not, but know people that are) that tried to watch the Money in the Bank PPV Sunday night saw some of them there.  It cannot handle high-demand live events well, although I feel that a live INDYCAR race wouldn't draw the audience of a WWE pay-per-view on Peacock.  Regardless, NBCUniversal will need to increase server capability like yesterday if for no other reason than the next WWE pay-per-view (SummerSlam, scheduled for Aug. 21 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas) needs to go off without a hitch on there.  

There's also no ability to rewind live broadcasts.  That is something that I can already do on NBC Sports Gold's TrackPass for IMSA events, ARCA races and Modified events.  Also, there's the fact that Peacock costs $50 a year on top of whatever else you're paying for.  Yes, I put the money up quickly and I get a fair amount of value for it, but not everyone feels that way.

Racing-wise, INDYCAR joins the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship and Monster Energy AMA Supercross with live broadcasts on Peacock.  I haven't really had issues with the motorcycle action on there, or even the existing INDYCAR coverage on Peacock, but those don't draw the viewership that live races will.

It should be noted that if you have Comcast's Xfinity X1 service, you can get Peacock Premium for free.  Same for those with COX Contour.  I have Spectrum and a similar deal allows me to get HBO Max for free.

The dissolution of NBCSN will result in USA flashing back to their earliest days in 2022.  The network was known as the MSG Network at the time and was designed to send satellite coverage of events at Madison Square Garden to early cable systems.  In 1979, the name changed to UA/Columbia.  Under that name, the channel became the primary cable partner of both the NBA and NHL, the first league-wide cable television TV deals in pro sports.  In early 1980, UA/Columbia became the USA Network.

Where did racing fit in USA's plans in the 1980s?  They had some kind of relationship with CBS in the early 1980s.  As a result, the Twin 125s from Daytona aired on USA in the early to mid-1980s.  

They also had Busch Grand National events and Trans-Am races on the network that were produced with Motorweek Productions, Ken Squier's production company.  At least one NASCAR Coors Tour race, the Skoal Bandit/Loudon Governor's Cup 120 at Bryar Motorsports Park (now-New Hampshire Motor Speedway), aired on the network in 1985.

Despite some marquee sports-related events airing on USA in the 1980s, likely the most notable among them being the 1984 NBA Draft, the network was likely best known in the sports world for boxing.  They had boxing every week on the channel.

USA has not aired racing on a regular basis since about 1988.  During the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, two NASCAR races aired on USA.  Next year, there will be at least a couple of INDYCAR races on the network, along with NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series events.  Had NBC Sports held onto rights to the NHL, they would have had NHL games on there as well.

There is one benefit for airing races on USA over NBCSN.  USA has been a basic cable channel more or less as long as there's been such a thing as basic cable.  If you have pay TV, you get it.  There's pretty much no wondering if you get it or not.

Overall, the announcement is a net-positive for INDYCAR, but NBC Sports having so much control over INDYCAR's schedule in Olympic years is problematic.  The NTT IndyCar Series actually has a fair amount of ratings momentum right now.  The aforementioned press release indicates that NBC Sports' INDYCAR coverage is up 30% over last year.  Unfortunately, they got forced into a 30-day break in the dead of summer.  By the time it ends, we'll be knee-deep in coverage of NFL training came and preseason football.  We'll see who comes back to watch the races once the season resumes in Nashville.  NBC's promoting the heck out of the new Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, which is said to potentially have 28 entries?  We'll have to see about that.

As for live NTT IndyCar Series races on Peacock?  I'm not a fan of it.  The series deserves more exposure than that.  My fears here are not necessarily with INDYCAR, but with IMSA.  Their TV deal is also up at the end of 2021 and nothing has been announced there.  Things seem to be looking up there, especially since they finally signed an agreement that allows for convergence between LMDh and Hypercars starting in 2023.  

However, they could end up exclusive to Peacock with next to nothing on television in their next TV deal if they stay with NBC Sports for no other reason than they don't have room on USA for their races.  The series has their State of the Series presentation in a couple of weeks at Road America.  That's where they will likely announce their 2022 schedule and we'll see if anything comes out of that.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Karl Zemlin of INDYCAR Media.