Steve O’Donnell wants NASCAR on every screen possible. The NASCAR CEO laid out his vision for the sport during a recent appearance on Bussin’ With The Boys.
What We Know: NASCAR’s media rights are currently spanning more than five partners. FOX Sports, Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Sports are among them. But O’Donnell has bigger goals in mind by making the sport more of a “must have” as opposed to how networks may consider it today. The NASCAR CEO sat down for an exclusive interview with Bussin’ With The Boys to explain his outlook.
What They Said: (All quotes via Bussin’ With The Boys)
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell wants NASCAR to be a destination sport for networks/steaming platforms: “We have a big opportunity now in the next three to four years to kind of come together. Right now I’d say, we’re a nice to have sport. When you look at networks and everything, not a must have. That’s the goal. We want to be a must have sport. If you’re any one of these networks, any digital, streaming, you better have NASCAR because that’s where eyeballs are going to be. We got to put ourselves in a position to do that. I think we’re on our way.”
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell on his desires for faster growth than ever before: “When I started, we were we were literally chasing IndyCar. If we can just be bigger than IndyCar, this will be unbelievable. Now, I want to look at I want to be the fastest growing sport in the world. We got some work to do, but we got to rally around that and go.”
NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell on younger demos coming to the sport: “Attendance is up. Rating are up. The biggest thing for us, we’re seeing is young people. We used to be the king of the 55 year old demo. That’s growing, The young we were struggling. Now with Amazon, Fox, we’re seeing that younger demo grow, which is big for us. Now we got to keep them though.”
What Remains Unclear: O’Donnell didn’t specify which networks might expand or reduce their NASCAR commitments. His goals shouldn’t come as a shock, but regarding how he plans to achieve them remains unknown.
What It Means: NASCAR is betting its future on becoming essential, not optional, programming. Younger viewership gains give O’Donnell leverage heading into future negotiations. Still, turning “nice to have” into “must have” requires sustained ratings growth and added attention in a crowded marketplace. Ultimately, the next few years will test whether NASCAR could compete on a higher level with more adaptions and partnerships to showcase the sport to new audiences.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.