Idle notes: NASCAR and NHL schedules, Ducks TV deal, SEC on ABC

NASCAR unveiled its 2025 schedule on Thursday — the first of its new media rights deal — including a historic Mexico City race and its new In-Season Tournament. Plus: the NHL released its national TV schedule for the coming season, the Ducks are joining the Stars on a new free streaming channel, and the new “SEC on ABC” will have a familiar theme this season.

NASCAR sets 2025 schedule, including Mexico City and In-Season Tournament

NASCAR announced its 2025 schedule on Thursday, with the primary highlight being the addition of a Mexico City race next June — the first Cup Series race ever contested outside of the United States. The Mexico City race will air as part of the new five-race Amazon Prime Video package that begins with the Coca-Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend and also includes Nashville, Pocono and Michigan.

The new NASCAR In-Season Tournament will span the entirety of the new five-race TNT package, starting with Atlanta on June 28 and running through the Brickyard 400 on July 27. The TNT portion of the schedule also includes the third-annual Chicago street race July 6.

The NBC portion of the season will begin on the first weekend of August at Iowa. FOX will again carry the first segment of the season, running from The Clash (which this year has relocated to Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina) through the All-Star Race.

NHL unveils 2024-25 national TV schedule

The NHL announced its national television schedule on Thursday, with 62 games set for TNT, 31 for the ESPN cable networks, 19 for ABC and 50 exclusively for ESPN+.

As previously noted , the season begins with an opening night tripleheader on ESPN October 8 (Blues-Kraken, Bruins-Panthers and Blackhawks-Utah), with a TNT doubleheader the following night (Rangers-Penguins and Avalanche-Golden Knights). ESPN again has a “Frozen Frenzy” tripleheader on October 22 — a night when all NHL teams are in action — with Capitals-Flyers, Avalanche-Kraken and Kings-Golden Knights.

The Winter Classic (Blues-Blackhawks from Wrigley Field) will move up to New Year’s Eve — as previously announced — and the Stadium Series (Red Wings-Blue Jackets from Ohio Stadium) is set to air on ESPN, rather than ABC, on March 1.

As for ABC, its 19-game slate will not consist of any tripleheaders this season, but the network will carry six doubleheaders (not counting a split doubleheader during the “Four Nations” tournament). The Bruins are set for the most ABC games (6), followed by the Rangers (5), Red Wings (4) and Penguins (4). The defending champion Panthers are set for two.

NHL Ducks join Stars’ free streaming venture Victory+

The NHL Anaheim Ducks announced Wednesday that their games will air on Victory+, the new, free streaming service launched by the Dallas Stars and A Parent Media Co. that is set to launch next month. As with the Stars, Ducks games will be available to stream for free (with an account) within the team’s territory. Ducks games will also be available over-the-air via L.A.’s MyNetworkTV affiliate KCOP (Fox 11 Plus).

Ducks games previously aired on Bally Sports So Cal. Anaheim joins the aforementioned Stars, Kraken, Golden Knights and the Utah Hockey Club (previously the Coyotes) in leaving RSNs for a combination of over-the-air and streaming.

SEC on ABC to use new version of old ESPN college football theme

ESPN announced Thursday that it is resurrecting a version of its 1990s and 2000s-era college football theme music for SEC games on ABC. The theme, which debuted on ESPN in 1992 and was used until the 2014-15 season, will be used solely on ABC’s SEC home games. Those games will also use a separate graphics package from other college football games on the ESPN family of networks.

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