After announcing a deal for the entire IndyCar package last week, in which NBC Sports would carry the full season for the first time starting in 2019, Mark Miles, President and CEO, Hulman & Company and Jon Miller, President, Programming, NBC Sports & NBCSN, met with the press to break down expectations for the deal. Under the agreement, eight IndyCar races would be carried on NBC next season, up from five that ABC had been showing, with the rest of the races slated for NBC Sports Network, in addition to other content. In lieu of our weekly Q&A, here are some key quotes from the press conference.
Miller on IndyCar: From the NBC perspective, we’ve seen the growth of IndyCar on our cable network NBCSN. We’ve had sustained growth each of the past several years. So the opportunity to have the entire series was very important to us. Of course, to be able to do the crown jewel, the Indy 500 on NBC, really puts the icing on the cake for us and makes our championship season portfolio even stronger.
On the timing of the Indy 500: It’s perfect. It falls right at the end of May. We start our Championship Season with the Kentucky Derby and THE PLAYERS Championship, although by ’19 THE PLAYERS Championship will have moved out. This becomes an ideal opportunity for us to go from the Triple Crown, the championship season in the Premier League, the Stanley Cup Finals, the Indianapolis 500, the French Open, and all the way through the Tour de France and The Open Championship in golf.
On preventing overlap with NASCAR: I think the idea that IndyCar fans wouldn’t watch NASCAR or NASCAR fans wouldn’t enjoy IndyCar is wrong. I think that people like speed, they like motorsports, they like the individual stories that come out of the athletes that are in the cars. I think we’ll be able to grow our fan base accordingly.
I think it is something that we will look at, and strategically when we set up the schedule for 2019, we will do it with an eye towards not competing with our other motorsports properties.
Miles on the partnership: We’re delighted be every aspect of this announcement today and these arrangements. The increase in broadcast, the number of races on broadcast, is really important to the continued growth of the series. The continuity with one media partner who is committed to the sport and to IndyCar, who can help promote from race to race to race throughout the season is important. Having our product, if you will, our first offering to fans in the direct-to-consumer channel is important to us.
On how the package will help sponsorship: At the more micro or operating level, I think we have a great opportunity with NBC to really integrate our approach to the market and to sales. I think there will be companies that are prospective series sponsors that NBC has great relationships with. We ought to be able to go to them with an integrated package of both advertising and series sponsorship. And conversely, perhaps there are companies we’re talking to already that we’d really like to see invest in NBC and its programming, as well as being considered for title sponsorship.
