Apple Moves To Overtake ESPN As Formula 1 Broadcaster In US; Opens Door For Global Streaming Rights
โ€” 10 July 2025

Apple Moves To Overtake ESPN As Formula 1 Broadcaster In US; Opens Door For Global Streaming Rights

โ€” 10 July 2025
Garry Lu
WORDS BY
Garry Lu
  • Following the commercial success of its F1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, Apple is once again bidding for the broadcast rights of Formula 1.
  • Previously, the three-trillion-dollar tech giant eyed the whole enchilada (complete global rights), though itโ€™s now aiming for just the US.
  • Appleโ€™s desire signals a growing American interest in the elite motorsport format.

While the majority of the Formula 1 world was preoccupied by the bombshell dismissal of Red Bull Racingโ€™s Christian Horner after a two-decade tenure that yielded eight driversโ€™ championships, six constructorsโ€™ championships, and 124 race wins, Apple made an equally consequential move.

Contrary to the Cupertino-based companyโ€™s past mandates to claim all or nothing (more on this shortly), itโ€™s now looking to challenge ESPN for the American broadcast rights of F1 when the latterโ€™s contract expires next year.

RELATED: How Netflix Rewrote The Economics Of Hosting A Formula 1 Grand Prix

According to the Financial Times, which broke this story, the race car series generates approximately US$85 million a year from its existing ESPN partnership. Analysts at Citi, however, have estimated the next US broadcast deal could be worth US$121 million annually, though that figure was calculated before the release of Appleโ€™s F1 movie.

Under the stewardship of American owners Liberty Media, Formula 1โ€™s global media rights revenue increased by almost 8% in 2024 to $1.1 billion; while ESPN viewership has doubled from 554,000 viewers per race in 2018 (the year after Liberty Media took the reins) to around 1.1 million viewers per race in 2024.

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The decision is rather surprising given Apple is never one to do things by halves. Thatโ€™s precisely why they coughed up US$2.5 billion to become synonymous with Major League Soccer (MLS) globally for the next decade or so. And thatโ€™s why, in late 2023, reports indicated they showed โ€œstrong interestโ€ in the worldwide media rights for F1.

So much so that they were apparently prepared to pay US$2 billion yearly for the privilege โ€“ which wouldโ€™ve effectively doubled what the grid generated at the time.

โ€œWeโ€™ve looked at sports for a long time, mainly because my personal feeling is thereโ€™s never been a better time to be a sports fan and never been a worse time,โ€ Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Services, told B.H. during MLS All-Star Week.

โ€œEveryone always wants the ability to watch multiple games at once, but itโ€™s really hard to do because again, theyโ€™re all distributed in different ways, different rights, all that kind of stuff. With us, itโ€™s really easy.โ€

Elsewhere, the Apple veteran โ€“ who is actually a board member of Scuderia Ferrari โ€“ added: โ€œWeโ€™re a global company. We have customers in every country in the worldโ€ฆ and itโ€™s not exciting for me to have something that you can have but you canโ€™t have.โ€

In other words, plating themselves up a slice of the pie (however sizable it may be) as opposed to taking the whole baking tin seems antithetical to the companyโ€™s well-documented MO.

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(Photo by Bryn Lennon โ€“ Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

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That being said, getting a foot in the door with the US broadcast rights could simply be the first step towards the eventual checkmate. It could also prove to be a valuable investment between the marketing juggernaut that is rival streamer Netflixโ€™s Drive To Survive; the buzz generated by Appleโ€™s own F1 franchise with Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) at the helm, as well as the impending launch of the All-American Cadillac F1 team.

This potential-rich triumvirate alone will likely attract plenty of US eyeballs.

At the time of this writing, Formula 1 has quite a list of broadcast partners all across the globe, ranging from the aforementioned ESPN in the US and Sky Sports in the UK to Fox Sports in both Mexico and Australia.

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Garry Lu
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After stretching his legs with companies such as The Motley Fool and the odd marketing agency, Garry joined Boss Hunting in 2019 as a fully-fledged Content Specialist. In 2021, he was promoted to News Editor. Garry proudly retains a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, black bruises from Muay Thai, as well as a black belt in all things pop culture. Drop him a line at [email protected]

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