Yahoo Finance IndyCar champion Scott Dixon: Every sport is 'in limbo' amid changing viewer habits
The streaming wars are hitting the speedway to compete for users’ attention.
The IndyCar Grand Prix of Monterey, which is set to take place Sunday, Sept 22, is available to live stream on NBC Sports Network (CMCSA). Car racing and other sports are in a “little bit of limbo” as streaming platforms ramp up, according to one IndyCar champion.
“It is a difficult time, I think,” Scott Dixon, defending IndyCar champion, told Yahoo Finance’s YFi AM this week, “especially with the difference between digital media and the transition to streaming and many other platforms. Right now there’s so many choices.”
While the IndyCar race can be viewed on traditional television on NBC Sports Network, viewers can also tune in online on NBC and on NBC’s subscription service Sports Gold, in addition to international platforms and on the IndyCar mobile app. But Dixon says the partnership with NBC has been an important opportunity for the NTT IndyCar series.
“The partnership with NBC has been huge for us to create the continuity between other formulas that we race with,” Dixon adds, “especially with the Olympics coming up.”
Dixon also says it is “tough to engage millennials” and it could be even harder to engage the younger generation that follows them due to the overwhelming media landscape. If he’s not alone in that opinion, then the decision made by the NTT IndyCar Series to stream on multiple platforms may be right on track.
In Deloitte's 13th survey of digital media trends, which surveyed more than 2,000 people, it found that more U.S. households subscribed to a streaming service than those that paid for traditional TV.
Despite the changing landscape, Dixon is optimistic that the sport of race car driving is still heading in the right direction.
“The biggest thing is when you go to an IndyCar race and see ... the sights, the sounds, even the smells that will engage you,” he said. “We still have the largest one-day sporting event in the world with the Indy500 and almost 400,000 people in one spot. I think the sport is alive and well.”
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Brooke DiPalma is a Producer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma.
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