Xfinity has bold plans in NASCAR

High above the city in Philadelphia's tallest skyscraper, NASCAR's potential future zooms into focus on a 140-inch screen.

It's also just as clear on a mobile device.

There could be a channel dedicated to your favorite driver. Want the latest news on Jimmie Johnson? Maybe a replay of old interviews or his winning races? Or how about live scanner traffic between Johnson and his crew chief during a race?

It could all be just a push of a remote control button away.

"I'm going to be bold and say we're going to do all of that," said Matt Strauss, Comcast's senior vice president of video services.

Philadelphia-based Comcast has innovative plans to beef up how NASCAR fans follow the sport, from routine news stories flowing on a ticker during the week to expanded coverage from inside the pits on the weekends. Comcast Corp. signed a 10-year agreement to replace Nationwide Insurance as the title sponsor of NASCAR's second-tier racing series beginning next season.

The series will be known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series through 2024. The deal matches the longest single agreement around title sponsorship of any NASCAR national series in its history, and Sports Business Daily valued the package at worth close to $200 million. Xfinity is Comcast's residential cable and Internet provider.

Unlike most sponsorship branding that has no impact on the average fan, Comcast is trying to make its X1 platform as necessary for fans as four wheels on a stock car.

At Philadelphia's Comcast Center, Strauss showed on the big screen how the X1 service could work as a computer-on-TV. Search engines, apps, real-time scores, even the latest trends on Twitter can be customized to fit almost any driver or hot topic in NASCAR.

And X1 works on mobile devices.

Strauss said it would be possible to create on-demand content of drivers and races could be viewed live on the mobile app. More at AP News

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