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

• 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 it’s now aiming for just the US.
• Apple’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 Racing’s Christian Horner after a two-decade tenure that yielded eight drivers’ championships, six constructors’ championships, and 124 race wins, Apple made an equally consequential move.

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

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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 Apple’s F1 movie.

Under the stewardship of American owners Liberty Media, Formula 1’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.

The decision is rather surprising given Apple is never one to do things by halves. That’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 that’s why, in late 2023, reports indicated they showed “strong interest” in the worldwide media rights for F1.

So much so that they were apparently prepared to pay US$2 billion yearly for the privilege – which would’ve effectively doubled what the grid generated at the time.

“We’ve looked at sports for a long time, mainly because my personal feeling is there’s never been a better time to be a sports fan and never been a worse time,” Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Services, told B.H. during MLS All-Star Week.

“Everyone always wants the ability to watch multiple games at once, but it’s really hard to do because again, they’re all distributed in different ways, different rights, all that kind of stuff. With us, it’s really easy.”

Elsewhere, the Apple veteran – who is actually a board member of Scuderia Ferrari – added: “We’re a global company. We have customers in every country in the world… and it’s not exciting for me to have something that you can have but you can’t have.”

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 company’s well-documented MO.

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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 Netflix’s Drive To Survive; the buzz generated by Apple’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.