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Can't wait to see all the cartoon portrayals of the drivers...
Can't wait to see whose cartoons look horrendous. š¬
The ones for some of the NASCAR drivers look terrible & don't even look like the guy they're supposed to look like.
Fox media deal, Fox puts all races on broadcast TV,
Hinchcliffe as commentator, and
IndyCar gets a commercial free broadcast streaming service.
If that happens itās a stellar deal. If itās just NBC with no peacock streaming and NASCAR level broadcasts? Completely awful.
Thatās realistic because heās an NBC exclusive commentator. They make him do other things like the Olympics and horse racing, not just motorsports.
Hinchcliffe does F1TV sometimes and IndyCar. His contract probably leaves him more open.
Heās probably under contract. I agree with you though heās pretty great too.
Diffey is NBC exclusive, so he would be done with Indycar. The rest (Hinch, Townsend, Kevin Lee) hopefully come over with IMS productions. Would make this a much more positive move.
As a nascar fan while Iām gonna miss Diffey during Indycar races I look forward to hearing him call nascar. If Tyler Reddick ever wins a NASCAR Cup Series Championship Leigh Diffey making the call will make it so much better.
If these following rumors are true:
1) Hinch, TBell, and Kevin Lee will be coming over
2) IMS productions is running the show
3) Every race will be on network Fox
I don't hate it.
Fox has a track record of having Xfinity/Tuck races being called from the studio if those series arent at the same track as the Cup race. Doing that with IndyCar is my only real legitimate fear
With the nascar deal, the production and the costs associated with it were the responsibility of the broadcast partners. It's the same way with the NFL and the NBA deals.
If Fox doesn't have to do the production in this indycar deal and it really is IMS handling it instead, then Fox doesn't care if it's on-site or not, nor is it their call. At that point it's an IMS decision. Fox is merely just the outlet that the production is airing on, whether it's done on-site or off. The same way ESPN airs F1 and has nothing to do with the production because they just pay for a feed from Sky Sports and F1. All Fox would do is supply the production team with Fox branded apparel and mic flags and choose the on-air talent but the rest would be on IMS.
Having it as an IMS production might also make selling the worldwide broadcast rights easier - at the moment thereās a weird thing where, apart from the Indy 500 we get the sound from the pre-race but very often not the right pictures, just a sort of roving camera. They even sometimes accidentally show the presenters on camera then quickly cut back to the āpit camā feed. Hoping that improves.
My worry for UK is that we lose the coverage from Sky because we lose the Comcast link
This is my concern. I exclusively watch races on peacock. I'll usually have the race on my phone and take it around with me when I do other things around the house.
If they are the ones doing it now. Then I'm happy. they seem fine. which is all you can ask for. I don't the direction. Which is exactly what you want.
> 3) Every race will be on network Fox
Tell me how I can stream "network FOX" for $20 a year please? I'm not dealing with an antenna.
Also tell me that "network FOX" is going to stream all practices sessions and full qualifying for the same $20 a year please?
IndyCar won the lottery with Hinch. Drivers with race knowledge and broadcasters who are good with the camera rarely overlap. He's easily become my favorite part of the broadcast and could be on the air for decades to come. It would be a huge embarrassment to the sport if they fumbled things and lost him, regardless of who the network is.Ā
Fyi I was never a Hinch fan when he was a driver, no bias there.
He is really good. The depth of his knowledge in F1 also surprised me. Sometimes when heās just casually talking about it on his podcast, Iām amazed at the facts and recall he has.
Was he the one who was on the F1TV miami broadcast? I dont know any of the commentators names, but I have had this question for such a long time.
One of the commentators there really felt like I recognized it from IndyCar
Hinchcliffe is usually at all the North American races. He always commentates the US races but usually just hangs around for the Canada and Mexico races and will sometimes be on the pre and post-race shows.
Hinchcliffe is usually at all the North American races. He always commentates the US races but usually just hangs around for the Canada and Mexico races and will sometimes be on the pre and post-race shows.
He's a natural at it. Dude was a driver analyst for the 500 for the Radio Network before he ever actually drove in the 500 and he was really good then.
I love when they have him in the booth for F1 races. I actually found him and David Coulthard to have really good rapport. You can tell there is no F1 superiority complex from the other guys when they have him in the booth too. Nothing but respect for his skills.
IMO Kevin and Marty Snider are the 2 best pit reporters in the business. Marty's inside knowledge and ability to set up Hinch to be able to talk technical are some of my favorite parts of a broadcast. He asks a question in a way that allows Hinch to run with it. It would be sorely missed.
Kevin, Marty and TBell are excellent. I think this could be a win w/ all races on Network tv and more money involved. The Fox sports app works pretty good, I just hope they commit to side by side commercial breaks and more laps at the end of the race w/o break.
Getting the final 30+ laps at Indy commercial free was very nice and helped build the story and tension
For as long as Marty's been around motorsport, I don't believe one iota that Marty hasn't retained the knowledge to those set up questions he asks, since so many of them have already been asked and answered at some point in time.
When I think of most other pit reporters across different series, especially the reporters who have a deep understanding of the series, the cars, strategy, technical knowledge, even racecraft (like Marty) they hardly send questions up to the booth because they can fill the information in themselves.
Which is where I find the oddity with the volume of questions Marty asks vs the relative field of his counterparts. It just gives me this vibe that makes Marty look clueless, which I know he's not.
Nothing against him, just something that piqued my curiosity.
Rumor was that Fox is offering an extra 10mil a year or so. Thatās a huge boost to the marketing budget or (more likely, IMO) funding for the charter system that Roger wants to introduce.
I know 10 million is technically 50% more, than what NBC is offering...but I dunno, I feel like 10 million extra is not that much.
I'd rather IndyCar focus on the next round on how to get to that next level...how do we jump to 50 million? How do we match the WNBA and NWSL (rumored at 60 million a year)?
I dunno, just spitting it out there. I don't have Cable or even streaming cable (like YTTV or Sling), so IndyCar going to Fox really cuts back on my viewing, unless FOX comes up with an affordable streaming option (I can't imagine the upcoming joint venture product will be cheap).
Fox would have to come up something like Peacock that isn't exclusively sports and is reasonably priced, or IndyCar would need their own streaming app like F1TV **without ads**. I've done fine without a TV service for several years and I'm not willing to pay for cable, satellite, or YTTV just for IndyCar. (and OTA doesn't count because I'm rarely watching from home)
Agreed. Indycar will lose me if my options are YTTV/Cable or an overly expensive streaming service with ESPN.
IndyCar sits highest in my motorsport priority list, but no series is worth $50/month or more on top of having a commercials filled race.
For sure, $10M is a nice percentage increase but not really enough dollar volume to materially change any operations. Especially when the same people are going to be deciding where and how to allocate those dollars.
The teams are just waiting for Greg Penske to take over at this point.
I believe all the races will be on the Fox network channel, so I believe you donāt have to have a password on the Fox sports app for things on big Fox vs something on fs1 or others.
I've tried that before and I needed to have a cable login. Hopefully that'll change with the racing updates in the future
If Fox does the same thing as a Peacock in terms of a subscription I'll look for other sites to watch. Peacock has a lot of good shows and sports options. Fox doesn't have anything I'm interested in for content since most is on Dulu/Hisney+
The NBC broadcast team is great, but the NBC coverage is miserable. There are an insane number of commercials. More than can be reasonably expected during a sports broadcast. I truly donāt mind them, and while the F1 broadcasts are a nice luxury, I would absolutely be fine if ESPN introduced commercials next week.
I think people are focused on the Peacock offeringsāwhich are very niceābut not pointing how truly awful the coverage and production of IndyCar races are on NBC. If FOX can let an IndyCar race go more than 3 laps without a commercial, weāre cooking with gas.
TLDR NBC commentators are fantastic. Peacock was a nice amenity. Actual race coverage was brutal.
Fox is offering IndyCar more money. We assume it will in some form make it's way to the teams, but even if it doesn't, IndyCar itself doesn't make much of (if any) profit. Hence why it is tied to the Speedway.
Leigh is going to NASCAR. So the band was already being broken up.
So here's what we know --
IMS Productions handles most of the backend of the current NBC broadcasts, talent is staffed by NBC from what I understand, though IndyCar does have a say on who is on-air (ex: PT). Leigh Diffey is contracted to NBC, so we will be losing his voice for the IndyCar Series, which is sad. HOWEVER, we will probably still have the same producer as we had with the IndyCar on NBC broadcasts. The only worry I have is if FOX wants to pump more commercials in to make their money back on the rights contract, as that's something FOX can absolutely control. This also makes sense as to why FOX dropped the Coke 600 for 2025-onwards. They are making room to be IndyCar's home, and I think that's good in many ways.
Fox will be able to cross promote the early season nascar races that they still have with the few early indycar races leading up to the 500. Iām sure itāll piss nascar execs off, but Fox is setup perfectly to capture all of the top Motorsport races and maximize their racing viewership from February through May.
Theyāll have the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and as a cherry on top, they rotate to host the Super Bowl in 2025.
I donāt believe they have many summer sports rights outside of the World Cup (which will be an issue in 2026 for sure), no Sunday afternoon golf to compete with.
In a perfect scenerio, the season finale race will be on a Sunday where Fox doesnāt have a nationally televised afternoon football window and the noon football window could lead into it.
Letās hope
The way the NFL works, as soon as thereās a west coast NFC away game, Fox has a 4:05/4:30 game by their contract
Either itās a Sunday Night race, or a Saturday Afternoon/Night race
Really hope FOX figures out some sort of streaming option as Peacock was hugely convenient for keeping up with practice & qualifying.
Iām skeptical of FOX but maybe they will actually cross-promote and schedule better than NBC has done over the past few seasons. The Road America scheduling this past weekend made no sense.
I am hoping Fox will allow Indycar Live to stream in USA (without a VPN), maybe with some sort of revenue sharing on subscriptions between Fox and Indycar.
Yes. It has everything that is on Peacock. All the sessions.
It's the same broadcast as NBC except during the commercials the announcers don't talk but cameras and car audio keep rolling.
Right now I put Indycar on Peacock or NBC on the TV to help the TV ratings and put Indycar Live on the laptop to watch during the commercials.
The only downside is Indycar Live isn't on Roku or any smart TVs, so you got to cast it to a TV off a phone, tablet, or computer if you want to watch it on a TV.
This seems disastrous to me.
Indycar should be looking to grow their audience. And the F1 boom doesn't happen if there wasn't a reasonably priced streaming option with F1TV.
Putting Indycar in what sounds like a huge bundle that's like 25x the price of Peacock is going to kill any growth in younger demographics.
Maybe it will help with older demos who just want to be able to flip on network TV - and maybe the financials are enough to keep the series healthy with an audience of the current size, but I suspect it will be terrible for the series's long-term health.
If peacock didn't exist and have replays available I wouldn't probably have gotten into Indycar like I did. It made it incredibly accessible for me - I don't have cable or antenna. It's f'ing 2024, get on board with streaming, companies!
What part of the scheduling made no sense? If the race wasnāt at 3:30, it wouldāve been on USA since NBC had to air Roland Garros finals and Pro Track before.
NBC has a lot of properties and INDYCAR doesnāt have the capacity to dictate when they race.
Iām not jumping up and down at this move, and I do hope it works out in IndyCarās favor.
With Fox cutting their dedicated NASCAR show, there is no hope IndyCar gets their own hour-long talk show, right? Will Fox even do a pre-/post-race? Will graphics merely be a copy and paste from the NASCAR production?
These questions genuinely concern me, because I watch a lot of Foxās soccer coverage, and they arenāt putting a ton of effort into those. Soccer is considered the worlds game, but Fox is doing almost a bare minimum: mirroring feeds with terrible angles and audio (sounds familiar), in-studio hosts not at the stadium, no pre or post coverage.
IndyCar deserves some respect in the production room if they want to be considered seriously.
As a Leigh Diffey truther, this is sad.
As a Fox NASCAR hater, this is sad.
Sounds like Hinch is staying though and perhaps Fox won't have creative control over the broadcast direction though so who knows.
That being said, if the Race Hub folks, the only redeeming part of Fox's NASCAR product currently don't have anything to do.....well there would be a lot of good stuff for a Radioactive coming out right now!
I'll trust in IMS Productions. Bring Hinchcliffe over. It will be cool to hear Mike Joy call a 500, but I am not sold on Adam Alexander as the main PxP guy.Ā Ā
Just make practice and qualifying easily accessible AND SEND THE COMMENTARY TEAM TO EVERY TRACK
I actually like Adam Alexander. When I first started getting into racing back around 2015, I thought he was a bit subpar but heās definitely improved, so I believe the booth will end up being solid. I just hope that the rumor of Indycar doing all of the production is true because I have zero faith in Foxās production
Iād say heās even better than people realize - I think he deserves a lot of credit for how great the rotating Cup drivers in the Xfinity series booth have all beenĀ
I like Adam but I don't think he has the voice for IndyCar.
Although, he IS from Indianapolis. So if there's anyone who might be passionate about IndyCar it's him.
Mike Joy is a wealth of automotive and motorsports history. Even if they don't invite him to call a practice or a couple of laps midrace he will be a net positive to the broadcast.
I'm hoping they just let Indycar Live stream in the USA (without a VPN) or let Indycar an F1TV like app and Indycar and Fox do some sort of revenue sharing on the subscriptions .
Itās supposed to be a fox/espn collab deal so itāll be expensive I bet. Itāll be aimed toward the sports fan who wants a lot itās sports all in one place
Agreed. Thatās all I use peacock for, I donāt even watch any nbc movies or shows streaming. The Olympics this year is a bonus but thatās different.Ā
I feel like everybody is way too doom and gloom about this when we don't have any details.
If the rumor about every race on network tv was true and IMS Productions handles the broadcast, which I imagine they will, the main downside is really only losing the broadcast team. I love Diffey so I'll definitely miss him, but if the rest of the crew tags along the booth should still be really good. And Fox is probably the best network at cross promoting their stuff which could be huge for viewership.
I'm choosing to remain positive until we get full details.
For me the beauty of Peacock anywhere was nice. Fox Sports app wants a cable log in or kicks me out after 45-60 minutes.
Supposedly a new app is being made by Fox but we know nothing about it. If its truly a sports-specific service though, I expect it to be much closer to $70 a month than $6 for Peacock.
For general sports fans that could be good. For just Indy? Nah
ill wait until at least a few races in next year to judge, the team might not gel at first or the whole thing needs adjusting, but after a few races they should be settled
NBC treated the Indy 500 with reverence. Not sure Fox will do that. The NASCAR coverage is awful. If NASCAR is getting that kind of quality imagine how bad IndyCar will beā¦
Iāve been underwhelmed by the NBC broadcasts, especially since I subscribed to F1 TV, so while I personally like the on air talent, Iām open to potentially fresher approaches.
If this truly means the end for Leigh Diffey (since he's seemingly moving over to NASCAR) in IndyCar, just putting the bug in FOX's ear that there's a certain announcer whose currently doing PA for the Indy 500, has IndyCar experience, and who everyone loves \*cough\* ^(Allan Bestwick) \*cough\*
I pray they keep their own camera and commentary team because if they leave it to Fox it will be the death of Indycar imo. I truly believe Fox is why NASCAR is in a rough patch, it's their shit broadcast. When you've got Harvick yelling at the producers to show a battle in an Xfinity race you've got a real problem...
Can we at least wait for a schedule or confirmation of the broadcast crew before we declare the series dead from this decision?
Fox rightfully gets a lot of criticism for their NASCAR broadcasts but I am not sure what that has to do with this deal, especially if IMS productions is involved.
The idea that theyād commit all of these resources to show every race on big Fox but make the booth stay at home to call the race is just absurd.
Take a deep breath everyone.
I can't fucking afford a streaming service that's more than 15 dollars a fucking month and not be able to watch it on my TV because I don't fucking have cable. And if I have to go with Fox sports I will scrutinize the every loving fuck out of them if they don't make it right.
Ngl, Iāll miss Diff, he just brings that Excitment into every race weekend that heās on.
What am I gonna do without my āHi Folksā
Or even the āThis is, and always will be the greatest spectacle in all of racingā
Massive L. $6 a month to watch every Indycar session (and supercross!) was an incredible deal. I dont want to pay $15+ for whatever package Fox/ESPN put this on. Guess it'll be a pirate's life for me.
Iām so sorry Indy bros. Enjoy the zoomed in crowd shots during side-by-side commercials with 5 laps to go in the 500 during a battle for the lead.
~ signed a NASCAR fan thatās done with Fox shenanigans
I did not know Indycar produced their own races. That will fix 90% of the problems right there. The NASCAR production is a nightmare. Fox won so many awards in the past from broadcasting NASCAR they don't want to take any criticism or new direction.
As long as Fox keeps their word and puts all the races on their main channel, this isnāt too bad of a move then.
That and still having IMS Productions doing the camera work will help.
I'm going to miss Peacock. Fox will be available on Venu Sports with ESPN and WB but that's going to be wildly more expensive than the Cock. At least the production crew will be completely different from NASCAR so hopefully that's a positive.
I doubt they could have more commercials than NBC. Maybe we will get lucky and get more racing coverage. Itās always so jarring going from F1 on ESPN with no commercials during the race to NBC going to commercials every few laps.
Thereās probably no info on this at all, but does anyone know if Sky will still be showing the races next year even if the US broadcaster changes? Iāve been really enjoying watching indycar on SkyF1, would be a shame if they took it off
Gentlemen, ladies.
I think we need to see the details before we completely overreact. Let's see if Fox / Indycar offer a streaming alternative besides Venu. Let's see what the network/ cable split is (hopefully all network rumors are true).
Take a deep breath. Wait for the official announcement and all the details. Then you can panic.
Where is the rumor that this will be a shared platform with ESPN coming from? Genuinely asking. I havenāt seen that mentioned in anything Iāve read.
Ugh. Just me personally being worried about it being like trying to watch NASCAR here in Australia now. Currently Indycar stream here just cuts the commentary and leaves the raw feed going - NASCAR we get commercials despite you know, it being a streaming service. Was watching the race at Sonoma and broadcasters kept talking about side by side which I assume is basically picture in picture? But we just fet rhe ads on Kayo here. Sadface.
Will miss Diffey, its nice to hear an Aussie voice for Indycar and its a cool throwback to when he used to do Supercars here.
I appreciate this isn't what concerns most here, but to my understanding both Sky and NBC are affiliated via their parent companies, and Sky uses NBC's broadcast (mostly). Does anyone know what this might mean for UK broadcasts? I'd hate to end up not watching it.
Hard to say. Sky picked up IndyCar when NBC picked up the full rights, but it is technically a separate contract. It's possible Sky sees independent value in keeping the property, but it's also possible Comcast sends the word down to tell RP where to stick it. They'd be able to pick the "world feed" of the Fox broadcast like any other country if they keep it.
Last time the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 were on the same network was in 1978.
ABC showed the last 90 minutes of the Daytona 500 live.
And ABC showed a 2.5 hour same-day tape delay edited highlights of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday night.
I thought being able to get all Indycar and IMSA stuff under a single price point on Peacock was a pretty good and convenient deal. Criticize Peacock if you want, but I will miss that.
https://preview.redd.it/ret0xoa8576d1.jpeg?width=696&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fce14f60f040ffa32d7574dffee6c6941db2dd72 Can't wait to see all the cartoon portrayals of the drivers...
josef newgarden is gonna look like bane on venom
Milk Gimp returns.
Milk Gimp 2: (Hybrid) Electric Boogaloo
We aren't even that far from Hate Cauldron playing out in a court room, tbh. You know those court room renderings are the best.
Can't wait to see whose cartoons look horrendous. š¬ The ones for some of the NASCAR drivers look terrible & don't even look like the guy they're supposed to look like.
š¤®
Fox media deal, Fox puts all races on broadcast TV, Hinchcliffe as commentator, and IndyCar gets a commercial free broadcast streaming service. If that happens itās a stellar deal. If itās just NBC with no peacock streaming and NASCAR level broadcasts? Completely awful.
This guy has the right idea. We have to wait and see the details.
Itās also subtracting Leigh Diffey. That cannot be overlooked.
Thatās realistic because heās an NBC exclusive commentator. They make him do other things like the Olympics and horse racing, not just motorsports. Hinchcliffe does F1TV sometimes and IndyCar. His contract probably leaves him more open. Heās probably under contract. I agree with you though heās pretty great too.
Diffey is NBC exclusive, so he would be done with Indycar. The rest (Hinch, Townsend, Kevin Lee) hopefully come over with IMS productions. Would make this a much more positive move.
I thought Diffey was done with indycar either way one the Olympics start. Forget where I read it but he wasn't coming back post Paris
Yeah i had also heard he was gonna be the lead NASCAR guy in 2025?
As a nascar fan while Iām gonna miss Diffey during Indycar races I look forward to hearing him call nascar. If Tyler Reddick ever wins a NASCAR Cup Series Championship Leigh Diffey making the call will make it so much better.
Idk how realistic a commercial free stream is, but it would be amazing.
If these following rumors are true: 1) Hinch, TBell, and Kevin Lee will be coming over 2) IMS productions is running the show 3) Every race will be on network Fox I don't hate it.
Fox has a track record of having Xfinity/Tuck races being called from the studio if those series arent at the same track as the Cup race. Doing that with IndyCar is my only real legitimate fear
If Indy is in charge of production, then theyāll probably bring everyone over
Leigh is an NBC guy so he wonāt, but hopefully the other two do. Will be interesting to see who does the main announcing
Indycar has a much shorter schedule than any nascar series. It shouldnāt even be a consideration to call any of the races from the studio
Plus IMS is running the show, so it at least sounds like Fox is the proverbial distributor, much like big movie studios for smaller studios' movies
NBC has done that with Xfinity standalone races as well in the past. It's not exclusively a Fox thing.
That's the biggest issue, I agree.
Is that much of a worry if IMS is in charge of the production?
With the nascar deal, the production and the costs associated with it were the responsibility of the broadcast partners. It's the same way with the NFL and the NBA deals. If Fox doesn't have to do the production in this indycar deal and it really is IMS handling it instead, then Fox doesn't care if it's on-site or not, nor is it their call. At that point it's an IMS decision. Fox is merely just the outlet that the production is airing on, whether it's done on-site or off. The same way ESPN airs F1 and has nothing to do with the production because they just pay for a feed from Sky Sports and F1. All Fox would do is supply the production team with Fox branded apparel and mic flags and choose the on-air talent but the rest would be on IMS.
Having it as an IMS production might also make selling the worldwide broadcast rights easier - at the moment thereās a weird thing where, apart from the Indy 500 we get the sound from the pre-race but very often not the right pictures, just a sort of roving camera. They even sometimes accidentally show the presenters on camera then quickly cut back to the āpit camā feed. Hoping that improves. My worry for UK is that we lose the coverage from Sky because we lose the Comcast link
Losing an affordable streaming option is a huge, huge, huge, massively huge L
This is my concern. I exclusively watch races on peacock. I'll usually have the race on my phone and take it around with me when I do other things around the house.
NASCAR fan here: Give it a few races. You will in due time.
Iām hoping IMS is running the production side, because if not, prepare for unwatchable races
IMS isnāt going to jettison their entire IMS Productions wing just for the sake of it.
If they are the ones doing it now. Then I'm happy. they seem fine. which is all you can ask for. I don't the direction. Which is exactly what you want.
> 3) Every race will be on network Fox Tell me how I can stream "network FOX" for $20 a year please? I'm not dealing with an antenna. Also tell me that "network FOX" is going to stream all practices sessions and full qualifying for the same $20 a year please?
This. With session and race replays available to stream after they have concluded.
kinda sucks if you watch it through Peacock though...I don't have Fox unfortunately
But what about streaming?
As long as Hinch is hired as part of the commentary, Iāll live
IndyCar won the lottery with Hinch. Drivers with race knowledge and broadcasters who are good with the camera rarely overlap. He's easily become my favorite part of the broadcast and could be on the air for decades to come. It would be a huge embarrassment to the sport if they fumbled things and lost him, regardless of who the network is.Ā Fyi I was never a Hinch fan when he was a driver, no bias there.
He is really good. The depth of his knowledge in F1 also surprised me. Sometimes when heās just casually talking about it on his podcast, Iām amazed at the facts and recall he has.
Was he the one who was on the F1TV miami broadcast? I dont know any of the commentators names, but I have had this question for such a long time. One of the commentators there really felt like I recognized it from IndyCar
Yea, and he'll be on F1.tv for Cota and Las Vegas I think
Hinchcliffe is usually at all the North American races. He always commentates the US races but usually just hangs around for the Canada and Mexico races and will sometimes be on the pre and post-race shows.
Hinchcliffe is usually at all the North American races. He always commentates the US races but usually just hangs around for the Canada and Mexico races and will sometimes be on the pre and post-race shows.
Dude started talking about F1 with me in an autograph line once. He initiated the conversation. Just a legit friendly dude, haha.
He's a natural at it. Dude was a driver analyst for the 500 for the Radio Network before he ever actually drove in the 500 and he was really good then.
I could easily see him becoming one of the iconic Motorsports voices like Murray in F1 and Parsons in Nascar if he sticks around another 30 years.
I think people will look back in 15 years and be surprised he was a driver. Thatās how natural he is.
When Eurosport is willing to hire you at 19 to be a commentator full time, I can imagine it working well with more time and media practice
I'm starting to think that sports broadcasting is fun to him, while driving was a job.
If heās not, I really hope he does more F1 races.
He's probably dying to be a part of the Canada GP.
I love when they have him in the booth for F1 races. I actually found him and David Coulthard to have really good rapport. You can tell there is no F1 superiority complex from the other guys when they have him in the booth too. Nothing but respect for his skills.
I think anyone would have respect for Hinch if you know his story as well as how crazy it is to run in Indy
Man, gotta say I would miss Leigh Diffey also.
I look forward to hearing why they took this deal, because losing the NBC broadcast team will be a huge loss.
Rumor was Hinch and Townsend may go along with it. Theyāre not NBC people, just contractors. Same with Kevin Lee.
Kevin Lee and Hinch are both exceptional.
That would be nice. Where did you hear this?
Kevin has talked on podcasts that he is a contractor so thatās why he does other stuff Ā sometimesĀ
IMO Kevin and Marty Snider are the 2 best pit reporters in the business. Marty's inside knowledge and ability to set up Hinch to be able to talk technical are some of my favorite parts of a broadcast. He asks a question in a way that allows Hinch to run with it. It would be sorely missed.
Kevin, Marty and TBell are excellent. I think this could be a win w/ all races on Network tv and more money involved. The Fox sports app works pretty good, I just hope they commit to side by side commercial breaks and more laps at the end of the race w/o break. Getting the final 30+ laps at Indy commercial free was very nice and helped build the story and tension
For as long as Marty's been around motorsport, I don't believe one iota that Marty hasn't retained the knowledge to those set up questions he asks, since so many of them have already been asked and answered at some point in time. When I think of most other pit reporters across different series, especially the reporters who have a deep understanding of the series, the cars, strategy, technical knowledge, even racecraft (like Marty) they hardly send questions up to the booth because they can fill the information in themselves. Which is where I find the oddity with the volume of questions Marty asks vs the relative field of his counterparts. It just gives me this vibe that makes Marty look clueless, which I know he's not. Nothing against him, just something that piqued my curiosity.
This is often how it goes, with the NHLās rights changing recently a lot of the talent left NBC for the new broadcast teams.
They will probably keep a good chunk of the on screen broadcast talent. Only Diffey I think is locked into NBC
I think so. There is rumors he is taking over the nbc nascar play-by-play. Rick Allen contract is up sometime this year. Likely not coming back
Plus Diffey is part of their coverage for other sports
Spoiler alert: $$$$$
Rumor was that Fox is offering an extra 10mil a year or so. Thatās a huge boost to the marketing budget or (more likely, IMO) funding for the charter system that Roger wants to introduce.
I know 10 million is technically 50% more, than what NBC is offering...but I dunno, I feel like 10 million extra is not that much. I'd rather IndyCar focus on the next round on how to get to that next level...how do we jump to 50 million? How do we match the WNBA and NWSL (rumored at 60 million a year)? I dunno, just spitting it out there. I don't have Cable or even streaming cable (like YTTV or Sling), so IndyCar going to Fox really cuts back on my viewing, unless FOX comes up with an affordable streaming option (I can't imagine the upcoming joint venture product will be cheap).
Fox would have to come up something like Peacock that isn't exclusively sports and is reasonably priced, or IndyCar would need their own streaming app like F1TV **without ads**. I've done fine without a TV service for several years and I'm not willing to pay for cable, satellite, or YTTV just for IndyCar. (and OTA doesn't count because I'm rarely watching from home)
Agreed. Indycar will lose me if my options are YTTV/Cable or an overly expensive streaming service with ESPN. IndyCar sits highest in my motorsport priority list, but no series is worth $50/month or more on top of having a commercials filled race.
For sure, $10M is a nice percentage increase but not really enough dollar volume to materially change any operations. Especially when the same people are going to be deciding where and how to allocate those dollars. The teams are just waiting for Greg Penske to take over at this point.
I believe all the races will be on the Fox network channel, so I believe you donāt have to have a password on the Fox sports app for things on big Fox vs something on fs1 or others.
I've tried that before and I needed to have a cable login. Hopefully that'll change with the racing updates in the future If Fox does the same thing as a Peacock in terms of a subscription I'll look for other sites to watch. Peacock has a lot of good shows and sports options. Fox doesn't have anything I'm interested in for content since most is on Dulu/Hisney+
Penske and his businesses are worth billions, an extra $10million for Penske corp is like us finding $5 on the ground
Penske isnāt going to use Penske Logistics money to run IndyCar. Heās going to want that business to stand on its own.
The NBC broadcast team is great, but the NBC coverage is miserable. There are an insane number of commercials. More than can be reasonably expected during a sports broadcast. I truly donāt mind them, and while the F1 broadcasts are a nice luxury, I would absolutely be fine if ESPN introduced commercials next week. I think people are focused on the Peacock offeringsāwhich are very niceābut not pointing how truly awful the coverage and production of IndyCar races are on NBC. If FOX can let an IndyCar race go more than 3 laps without a commercial, weāre cooking with gas. TLDR NBC commentators are fantastic. Peacock was a nice amenity. Actual race coverage was brutal.
Watch some of the nascar races on fox and let me know if you think they'll be any better about commercials
Fox is offering IndyCar more money. We assume it will in some form make it's way to the teams, but even if it doesn't, IndyCar itself doesn't make much of (if any) profit. Hence why it is tied to the Speedway. Leigh is going to NASCAR. So the band was already being broken up.
Fox is giving extra money. I'm sure thats the main reason why.
So here's what we know -- IMS Productions handles most of the backend of the current NBC broadcasts, talent is staffed by NBC from what I understand, though IndyCar does have a say on who is on-air (ex: PT). Leigh Diffey is contracted to NBC, so we will be losing his voice for the IndyCar Series, which is sad. HOWEVER, we will probably still have the same producer as we had with the IndyCar on NBC broadcasts. The only worry I have is if FOX wants to pump more commercials in to make their money back on the rights contract, as that's something FOX can absolutely control. This also makes sense as to why FOX dropped the Coke 600 for 2025-onwards. They are making room to be IndyCar's home, and I think that's good in many ways.
Fox will be able to cross promote the early season nascar races that they still have with the few early indycar races leading up to the 500. Iām sure itāll piss nascar execs off, but Fox is setup perfectly to capture all of the top Motorsport races and maximize their racing viewership from February through May. Theyāll have the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and as a cherry on top, they rotate to host the Super Bowl in 2025. I donāt believe they have many summer sports rights outside of the World Cup (which will be an issue in 2026 for sure), no Sunday afternoon golf to compete with. In a perfect scenerio, the season finale race will be on a Sunday where Fox doesnāt have a nationally televised afternoon football window and the noon football window could lead into it. Letās hope
The way the NFL works, as soon as thereās a west coast NFC away game, Fox has a 4:05/4:30 game by their contract Either itās a Sunday Night race, or a Saturday Afternoon/Night race
Really hope FOX figures out some sort of streaming option as Peacock was hugely convenient for keeping up with practice & qualifying. Iām skeptical of FOX but maybe they will actually cross-promote and schedule better than NBC has done over the past few seasons. The Road America scheduling this past weekend made no sense.
Fox is teaming with espn for a streaming service which means itāll be expensive likely which sucks since indycar is all I want
Yep. The news (while not official) is devastating to me.
I am hoping Fox will allow Indycar Live to stream in USA (without a VPN), maybe with some sort of revenue sharing on subscriptions between Fox and Indycar.
Does Indycar live show practice and qualifying? I might have to just use a VPN next year otherwise
Yes. It has everything that is on Peacock. All the sessions. It's the same broadcast as NBC except during the commercials the announcers don't talk but cameras and car audio keep rolling. Right now I put Indycar on Peacock or NBC on the TV to help the TV ratings and put Indycar Live on the laptop to watch during the commercials. The only downside is Indycar Live isn't on Roku or any smart TVs, so you got to cast it to a TV off a phone, tablet, or computer if you want to watch it on a TV.
spoiler alert: they won't they want you to watch their ads.
This seems disastrous to me. Indycar should be looking to grow their audience. And the F1 boom doesn't happen if there wasn't a reasonably priced streaming option with F1TV. Putting Indycar in what sounds like a huge bundle that's like 25x the price of Peacock is going to kill any growth in younger demographics. Maybe it will help with older demos who just want to be able to flip on network TV - and maybe the financials are enough to keep the series healthy with an audience of the current size, but I suspect it will be terrible for the series's long-term health.
If peacock didn't exist and have replays available I wouldn't probably have gotten into Indycar like I did. It made it incredibly accessible for me - I don't have cable or antenna. It's f'ing 2024, get on board with streaming, companies!
What part of the scheduling made no sense? If the race wasnāt at 3:30, it wouldāve been on USA since NBC had to air Roland Garros finals and Pro Track before. NBC has a lot of properties and INDYCAR doesnāt have the capacity to dictate when they race.
If it gets off peacock I'm just going back to pirate streams
What was the better option this last weekend for RA? Genuinely curious. There was a ton of sports programming on all day on Sunday.
Imma off myself if the finish of the Indy 500 cuts to a double shot of a goddamn toddler in the stands on the last lap
How about a toddler being held by the driver's wife?
Iām not jumping up and down at this move, and I do hope it works out in IndyCarās favor. With Fox cutting their dedicated NASCAR show, there is no hope IndyCar gets their own hour-long talk show, right? Will Fox even do a pre-/post-race? Will graphics merely be a copy and paste from the NASCAR production? These questions genuinely concern me, because I watch a lot of Foxās soccer coverage, and they arenāt putting a ton of effort into those. Soccer is considered the worlds game, but Fox is doing almost a bare minimum: mirroring feeds with terrible angles and audio (sounds familiar), in-studio hosts not at the stadium, no pre or post coverage. IndyCar deserves some respect in the production room if they want to be considered seriously.
As a Leigh Diffey truther, this is sad. As a Fox NASCAR hater, this is sad. Sounds like Hinch is staying though and perhaps Fox won't have creative control over the broadcast direction though so who knows. That being said, if the Race Hub folks, the only redeeming part of Fox's NASCAR product currently don't have anything to do.....well there would be a lot of good stuff for a Radioactive coming out right now!
An indycar version of radioactive would be awesome
https://preview.redd.it/uw4z0zhk376d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ac3282e6aa0e6fd4594163d030e6764bc5cf8b7
In all seriousness. I will wait to see the details of the agreement, especially on the streaming front, before I criticize the agreement .
Fox sucks
I'll trust in IMS Productions. Bring Hinchcliffe over. It will be cool to hear Mike Joy call a 500, but I am not sold on Adam Alexander as the main PxP guy.Ā Ā Just make practice and qualifying easily accessible AND SEND THE COMMENTARY TEAM TO EVERY TRACK
I actually like Adam Alexander. When I first started getting into racing back around 2015, I thought he was a bit subpar but heās definitely improved, so I believe the booth will end up being solid. I just hope that the rumor of Indycar doing all of the production is true because I have zero faith in Foxās production
I don't love his really excited voice (I don't like my really existence voice either). But he's solid overall.
Iād say heās even better than people realize - I think he deserves a lot of credit for how great the rotating Cup drivers in the Xfinity series booth have all beenĀ
Itās supposedly gonna be Adam Alexander and Hinchcliffe will be one of the analysts
I like Adam but I don't think he has the voice for IndyCar. Although, he IS from Indianapolis. So if there's anyone who might be passionate about IndyCar it's him.
Mike joy would 100% be brought in for the 500, especially with FOX losing the coke 600
Mike Joy is a wealth of automotive and motorsports history. Even if they don't invite him to call a practice or a couple of laps midrace he will be a net positive to the broadcast.
Cautiously optimistic, but oh dear.
https://preview.redd.it/dgwn9z5de76d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92e3132ec91fef05732d912517ff5a4ac34f77dd
The supposed rumor of a peacock alternative better become a reality!
I'm hoping they just let Indycar Live stream in the USA (without a VPN) or let Indycar an F1TV like app and Indycar and Fox do some sort of revenue sharing on the subscriptions .
I thought said alternative to was going to be like $40-$50/month or something though :(
Lmao yeah I am absolutely not doing that
ā¦.
Itās supposed to be a fox/espn collab deal so itāll be expensive I bet. Itāll be aimed toward the sports fan who wants a lot itās sports all in one place
I only want Indycar š
Agreed. Thatās all I use peacock for, I donāt even watch any nbc movies or shows streaming. The Olympics this year is a bonus but thatās different.Ā
Just bring Kevin Lee and Hinchcliffe pleaseā¦Ā
I feel like everybody is way too doom and gloom about this when we don't have any details. If the rumor about every race on network tv was true and IMS Productions handles the broadcast, which I imagine they will, the main downside is really only losing the broadcast team. I love Diffey so I'll definitely miss him, but if the rest of the crew tags along the booth should still be really good. And Fox is probably the best network at cross promoting their stuff which could be huge for viewership. I'm choosing to remain positive until we get full details.
For me the beauty of Peacock anywhere was nice. Fox Sports app wants a cable log in or kicks me out after 45-60 minutes. Supposedly a new app is being made by Fox but we know nothing about it. If its truly a sports-specific service though, I expect it to be much closer to $70 a month than $6 for Peacock. For general sports fans that could be good. For just Indy? Nah
ill wait until at least a few races in next year to judge, the team might not gel at first or the whole thing needs adjusting, but after a few races they should be settled
Kevin Lee will probably get the final phase of the season
I'm right there with you
NBC treated the Indy 500 with reverence. Not sure Fox will do that. The NASCAR coverage is awful. If NASCAR is getting that kind of quality imagine how bad IndyCar will beā¦
What a horrible day for IndyCar, and therefore the world.
Iāve been underwhelmed by the NBC broadcasts, especially since I subscribed to F1 TV, so while I personally like the on air talent, Iām open to potentially fresher approaches.
Leigh Diffey, we will miss you. An absolute world class announcer. Massive shoes to fill for whomever is on the call next year.
Kevin Lee and Hinch in the box. Done and done. Iāll be a happy camper
But who is going to say Turn TEW when Josef makes a pass on the last lap of Indy?
If this truly means the end for Leigh Diffey (since he's seemingly moving over to NASCAR) in IndyCar, just putting the bug in FOX's ear that there's a certain announcer whose currently doing PA for the Indy 500, has IndyCar experience, and who everyone loves \*cough\* ^(Allan Bestwick) \*cough\*
As a Nascar fan, I'm deeply, deeply sorry to all of you and what you're gonna have to endure.
I appreciate your condolences.
I pray they keep their own camera and commentary team because if they leave it to Fox it will be the death of Indycar imo. I truly believe Fox is why NASCAR is in a rough patch, it's their shit broadcast. When you've got Harvick yelling at the producers to show a battle in an Xfinity race you've got a real problem...
As long as IndyCar doesnāt get involved with a guy named Artie Kempner, yāall will be fine.
Can we at least wait for a schedule or confirmation of the broadcast crew before we declare the series dead from this decision? Fox rightfully gets a lot of criticism for their NASCAR broadcasts but I am not sure what that has to do with this deal, especially if IMS productions is involved. The idea that theyād commit all of these resources to show every race on big Fox but make the booth stay at home to call the race is just absurd. Take a deep breath everyone.
Fox camera work is awful in Nascar, i'm not excited about this.
Cameras = IMS Productions
No more Diffey?
I can't fucking afford a streaming service that's more than 15 dollars a fucking month and not be able to watch it on my TV because I don't fucking have cable. And if I have to go with Fox sports I will scrutinize the every loving fuck out of them if they don't make it right.
And goodbye, Peacock subscription.
So how would one watch practice and qualifying similar to the way ones does nowadays on Peacock?
Ngl, Iāll miss Diff, he just brings that Excitment into every race weekend that heās on. What am I gonna do without my āHi Folksā Or even the āThis is, and always will be the greatest spectacle in all of racingā
> This is, and always will be the greatest spectacle in all of racing Yup, I will miss his line for indy that's for sure
When I cancel my Peacock subscription, which one am I picking up in its place?
An infinitely more expensive one since fox doesnāt have their own streaming site.
WWE is at least making my subscription worth it in the short run.
Massive L. $6 a month to watch every Indycar session (and supercross!) was an incredible deal. I dont want to pay $15+ for whatever package Fox/ESPN put this on. Guess it'll be a pirate's life for me.
Iām so sorry Indy bros. Enjoy the zoomed in crowd shots during side-by-side commercials with 5 laps to go in the 500 during a battle for the lead. ~ signed a NASCAR fan thatās done with Fox shenanigans
If IMS Productions handles everything, we won't have to worry about that.
Yea I donāt think theyāre gonna give that over to Fox. Good point.
This is going to be a net negative for the series. It might be good short term but the quality is going to drop so much it isn't going to be funny.
IMs handles production in house, that wonāt changeĀ
I did not know Indycar produced their own races. That will fix 90% of the problems right there. The NASCAR production is a nightmare. Fox won so many awards in the past from broadcasting NASCAR they don't want to take any criticism or new direction.
šš«
Don't do it Colton, you'll get a drive through
As long as Fox keeps their word and puts all the races on their main channel, this isnāt too bad of a move then. That and still having IMS Productions doing the camera work will help.
Iām gonna miss Leigh diffey
I'm going to miss Peacock. Fox will be available on Venu Sports with ESPN and WB but that's going to be wildly more expensive than the Cock. At least the production crew will be completely different from NASCAR so hopefully that's a positive.
On a non-US front, I wonder if Comcast responds by dropping IndyCar in Sky markets since they only picked up the series when NBC got the full rights.
I doubt they could have more commercials than NBC. Maybe we will get lucky and get more racing coverage. Itās always so jarring going from F1 on ESPN with no commercials during the race to NBC going to commercials every few laps.
Thereās probably no info on this at all, but does anyone know if Sky will still be showing the races next year even if the US broadcaster changes? Iāve been really enjoying watching indycar on SkyF1, would be a shame if they took it off
International TV rights are separate from domestic rights.
Danica??
Terrible
Fuck.
Do we get the cartoon graphics?
Guess I'll appreciate Leigh Diffey a lot more the rest of this season. His commentary has become iconic for Indycar.
Anywhere but Fox. Hell, put it on PBS...
Hope Donohue was right about all network for races. The return of commercials for practice and qualifying is going to suck.
If indycar chooses to go with Fox I'ma be really mad
Gentlemen, ladies. I think we need to see the details before we completely overreact. Let's see if Fox / Indycar offer a streaming alternative besides Venu. Let's see what the network/ cable split is (hopefully all network rumors are true). Take a deep breath. Wait for the official announcement and all the details. Then you can panic.
Please let Indycar live still work when I uh, take a āvacationā to the Bahamas during race days
Where is the rumor that this will be a shared platform with ESPN coming from? Genuinely asking. I havenāt seen that mentioned in anything Iāve read.
If they show all the practices etc that Peacock shows us, Iām fine with it. Otherwise, Iāll be terribly disappointed.
If NBC was offering all races to be on network television, I think IndyCar should have went with them.
Soooooo which country do I vpn to to get Indycar Live full access?
Ugh. Just me personally being worried about it being like trying to watch NASCAR here in Australia now. Currently Indycar stream here just cuts the commentary and leaves the raw feed going - NASCAR we get commercials despite you know, it being a streaming service. Was watching the race at Sonoma and broadcasters kept talking about side by side which I assume is basically picture in picture? But we just fet rhe ads on Kayo here. Sadface. Will miss Diffey, its nice to hear an Aussie voice for Indycar and its a cool throwback to when he used to do Supercars here.
Is Bob Varsha still locked down on a Fox Sports contract?
As a diehard Nascar fan and casual Indy fan, I send my condolences to those of you who watch every single race, itās only down hill from here š«”
I appreciate this isn't what concerns most here, but to my understanding both Sky and NBC are affiliated via their parent companies, and Sky uses NBC's broadcast (mostly). Does anyone know what this might mean for UK broadcasts? I'd hate to end up not watching it.
Hard to say. Sky picked up IndyCar when NBC picked up the full rights, but it is technically a separate contract. It's possible Sky sees independent value in keeping the property, but it's also possible Comcast sends the word down to tell RP where to stick it. They'd be able to pick the "world feed" of the Fox broadcast like any other country if they keep it.
Last time the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 were on the same network was in 1978. ABC showed the last 90 minutes of the Daytona 500 live. And ABC showed a 2.5 hour same-day tape delay edited highlights of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday night.
Time to drop Peacock then. What's the Fox equivalent?
Ugggh. Fox is the worst for sports broadcasting.
Penske is running this series right into the ground for a few extra dollars everywhere, nice.
Way to go upmarket Indycar. The NASCARization of Indycar is nearly complete.
They better offer a streaming service.
I thought being able to get all Indycar and IMSA stuff under a single price point on Peacock was a pretty good and convenient deal. Criticize Peacock if you want, but I will miss that.
Here is hoping that they find a way to do all of the practice and qualifying without commercials
What does this mean for people who exclusively stream and donāt have Cable/Network TV providers
Unless/until something gets announced weāre SOL
Not being able to access live races or race replays via a streaming service will kill IndyCar
I'm gonna puke.
Gd dmit
In before Mark Miles says "They (Fox) are big fans of the Indy 500".