Looks like Sky Sport NZ has decided to throw in some free-to-air exposure with IndyCar after all with an hour-long highlights package of each round this year starting with the opening race at St. Pete Florida and it’s being scheduled for 3.20 to 4.25pm this Wednesday on Sky Open.
That’s the same thing we’ve been tuned in over in Australia for a number of years now since Nine acquired the rights off Foxtel at the start of 2022 & they’re not going anywhere – despite the change of domestic rights carrier to FOX (yes, the US one) – where they’ve got the extensive live and on-demand option for their paid Stan Sport subscription before they replay the highlights for an hour and again as a repeat between a few days later and the next weekend via free-to-air on 9Go.
They will be back this Thursday at 11.40am-12.50pm as well as Saturday afternoon 1-2.10pm.
It’s going to be fantastic season ahead especially if you’re an NZ racing fan such as the likes of Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, veteran Scott Dixon for Ganassi even though he was born in the Gold Coast, and youngster Marcus Armstrong who has just moved to Ganassi’s satellite team at Meyer Shank Racing.
On top of that, UK’s Will Buxton will get his big break having just switched from F1 TV as Fox’s lead IndyCar announcer, who worked with Leigh Diffey for many years before as pit reporter when NBC had the rights for Formula 1 back in 2013-17, as well as the old Fox Sports’ Motorsports Channel called Speed several years beforehand between 2010 to 2012.
Plus, several on-air talent have also came over from NBC including one new and old familiar faces on pit road – there’s another Brit and racing driver Jack Harvey onboard for the first time (he’s like Regan Smith from the network’s NASCAR coverage in this series) and of course, Jamie Little who will be back to her familiar place at the IMS when the Indianapolis 500 comes around in May.
Yes, even though Australia has a good history of airing a full-length Indy 500 race in the past up until the early 2000s, there’s no way they will be able to do that once again when they start at 2am in the morning & almost no one would able to stay up going into the workday Monday.
Although it looks as likely we will get the first two hours live (as a simulcast) of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Endurance Race for 2025 once again at midnight in between late Saturday night & early Sunday morning before it will be redirected to Stan under a paywall like it was over the last two years since Nine has the WEC & they will be back to chase things out this June.
Again, going to be a huge year of motorsports whether you’re into open-wheels, sportscars or NASCAR as the first IndyCar race of 2025 starts tomorrow 4am only on Stan Sport and 6am on Sky Sport NZ.
