Inside NASCAR’s $60M Media Bet with Brian Herbst, EVP

What do you do when Amazon wants your media rights, but not your production headaches? If you’re NASCAR, you build a $60 MILLION dollar, 58,000-square-foot facility from scratch to solve the problem.

This week, Brian Herbst, EVP and Chief Media & Revenue Officer at NASCAR is here to share the bold moves behind NASCAR’s $7.7 billion media rights strategy. He shares the inside story of how NASCAR landed Amazon, TNT/Max, and The CW as new media partners, even while simultaneously producing every second of the NASCAR XFINITY Series in-house. 

You’ll hear how the team anticipated streaming’s rise as early as 2018, why they created in-car camera feeds for all 40 Cup Series cars, and what went into launching the Max-exclusive “driver cams” experience with synced team audio.

Plus, why did the Netflix series Full Speed reach the global top 5, despite 90% of its viewers never watching a NASCAR race?

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why NASCAR built a $60M in-house production facility – and how it helped secure The CW and Amazon as new rights partners
• Why more NASCAR fans subscribe to Prime over cable, and how that shaped a strategic streaming bet
• 90% of Full Speed viewers didn’t watch a single playoff race! What does that mean for fan growth?
• NASCAR’s in-car experience on Max, and why it offers something fans have never seen before
• How NASCAR is localizing content for 190+ countries while maintaining production control in North Carolina

Resources and Links:

Connect with Brian Herbst on LinkedIn and check out the NASCAR Full Speed series on Netflix and the Dale Earnhardt documentary on Amazon Prime.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.