Formula Drift Moves Coverage from YouTube to RACER Network

The 2026 Formula Drift season is going to look a little different for spectators tuning in from home. In what they’re calling “A New Kind of Content Rights Deal For a New Era in Media,” FD has signed an exclusive broadcast deal with the RACER Network.

The multi-year agreement moves FD coverage from its previous home on YouTube to RACER- and FD-hosted platforms. The platform change also brings some new content, including a grid-walk portion that will be hosted by Gregg Bucell, former Managing Director at KoruWorks. He’ll be interviewing drivers around the pits during practice ahead of the Top 32 competition and the segment “will kick off the cable TV broadcasts on RACER Network and be live on the RACER+ app, as well as via the RACER+ player on the FD website,” according to a press release.

Infusing more driver personality and telling the stories of each round with on-scene reporting has the potential to help fans to invest themselves more heavily into their favorite drivers’ championship efforts. While it’s not on the same scale as something like Formula 1’s Drive to Survive, any chance at peeking behind the curtain to see what’s going on outside the track is exciting.

Earlier competition, including seeding and qualifying for both PRO and PROSPEC “will be available for free on the RACER+ app and on RACER’s FAST channel, which reaches 400 million devices in North America, including Samsung, Roku, Amazon and more,” reads the press release.

The move, then, doesn’t mean any added cost for fans, but it does mean a change from a massive, familiar platform in YouTube to a new, potentially less intuitive one in RACER’s various formats. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it seems to be following a similar trend in other series. Look at F1’s move to Apple TV, for example. That move brought new ways to consume the motorsport, but lost the familiarity and some of the ease of watching on ESPN. There’s been plenty of room for improvement in past FD livestreams, from both a production and a viewer experience standpoint. This added support from an established network has the potential to fix some of those issues.

For drivers, the new partnership promises “a robust athlete incentive program,” though the press release doesn’t go into more detail on what that program specifically entails.

It’s too early to say what kind of effect this move will have on viewership numbers and on the series as a whole, but here’s to hoping the transition is a smooth one that gets new eyes on the motorsport and doesn’t force long-time fans away.

You can read the full press release here: https://news.formulad.com/2026/featured/formula-drift-signs-exclusive-broadcast-deal-with-racer-network/