US media giant Fox has acquired a significant minority stake in Penske Entertainment, the promoter of motor racing’s IndyCar series and the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) venue, expanding its presence in the competition.
Fox has purchased a third of Penske, inclusive of IndyCar and the IMS, in exchange for a reported fee of between $125 million and $135 million.
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Through the deal, Fox has also renewed its broadcast contract with IndyCar on a multi-year basis.
Fox has said that the driving aim behind the investment is to aid IndyCar in promoting its series and drivers, engage in a new digital and content strategy, and drive attendance and viewership.
Speaking on the acquisition, Penske Entertainment chief Roger Penske commented: “Fox sees the incredible potential across our sport and wants to play an active role in building our growth trajectory.”
Fox Sports chief executive and executive producer Eric Shanks added: “This investment underscores our commitment to motorsports and our belief in IndyCar's continued growth on and off the track. We’re excited to help elevate the sport to new heights across all platforms.”
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By GlobalDataFox took over the rights to IndyCar from NBC in 2024 ahead of the current 2025 season, and has already reaped benefits.
For example, the debut of the iconic annual Indy 500 race on Fox, which is hosted at the IMS, drew a massive year-on-year viewership uptick compared to the final NBC edition.
At the time of the Fox switch, IndyCar chief executive Mark Miles commented that the deal represented an “unparalleled growth opportunity” and “unrivalled exposure.”
That assessment seems to have borne fruit, with the departure of Nascar’s Coca Cola 600 (also May 25) from Fox to Prime Video seemingly boosting IndyCar’s success on the Fox network at its debut.
That deal made IndyCar the sole “premier” US motorsports series with exclusive major broadcast network coverage across every race in its season, and it remains to be seen how IndyCar will fare further into its 2025 campaign, with its August 31 finale rapidly approaching.
Fox also recently detailed plans for its all-encompassing OTT platform, which, alongside news and entertainment, will also host the media giant’s sports content.
Fox One, as it will be known, will launch later in 2025 in advance of American football’s NFL 2025 kick off (September 5), so while it may be too late to affect interest in the 2025 IndyCar campaign, the next year of the deal in 2026 may yet see further gains should the OTT service prove a success.
Fox has thus far been the only one of the national major media giants not to offer its own OTT platform, part of the reason why it invested in the doomed Venu Sports joint venture with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
That service would have hosted the sports portfolios of Fox, ESPN, and WBD in one OTT service, and since it was cancelled, both Fox and ESPN have scrambled to better their own OTT offerings as cord-cutting grows.
