Apple Officially Taking F1 Rights From ESPN in $700M Deal

Apple will officially take over Formula One’s U.S. media rights from ESPN next year.

The announcement was made Friday morning ahead of the United States Grand Prix taking place in Austin this weekend. 

The Apple TV streaming service (which rebranded from Apple TV+ this week) will have exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights through the end of the decade under the five-year deal, which will take F1 off cable and broadcast TV. 

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Puck reported the deal is worth $140 million annually, or $700 million for the five-year term. ESPN has been paying an estimated $80 million to $90 million annually in the current rights agreement; the network took over U.S. rights from NBC Sports in 2018, and in 2022 signed a lucrative extension that significantly increased its rights fees beginning in 2023.

Through September’s races, F1 races across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC were averaging 1.4 million viewers, higher than the all-time U.S. record season-long average of 1.21 million that was set in 2022.

“Our duty is to look into the future, and try to make sure that F1 can have the right platform for developing our growth,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a response to a Front Office Sports question during a call with reporters Thursday. “I really want to thank ESPN for what they did because they invested in us when no one was really ready to invest in us many, many years ago. But now is the time to look forward.”

Apple senior VP of services Eddy Cue indicated there are no plans to release race-by-race viewership figures. “I don’t know, we haven’t really talked about it from that standpoint, but we don’t typically release our numbers,” Cue said when asked by FOS. “Obviously, there’s Nielsen and all the other things that measure. So, ultimately, some things will be released, for sure.” 

Apple TV is not rated by Nielsen, which has led to uncertainty about how many people have been watching MLS matches since Apple took over that league’s global media rights in 2023 as part of a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal ($250 million annually). Earlier this year, MLS commissioner Don Garber said MLS was “averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match.”

Given its global strategy with MLS, it seems plausible that Apple would want to acquire more than just F1’s U.S. rights, especially since the sport is more popular in countries outside the U.S. “There’s a huge opportunity for both of us, and there’s more opportunities to go,” Cue said. “But we’re focused on this: Make this a success, and then it’ll be easier to keep growing and doing more.” 

That would have to be a long-term play, as F1 has plenty of existing deals throughout the world. In the U.K. and Ireland (F1 is headquartered in London), Sky Sports has exclusive broadcast rights through 2029. Sky, which is owned by Comcast, has rights in several other European countries, and international platforms like DAZN, BeIN, and Viaplay have rights in multiple countries, too.

While Apple TV users have to also purchase MLS Season Pass ($12.99 a month for Apple TV subscribers) to watch those soccer games, F1 races will be available to all users for no added charge. Apple TV itself costs $12.99 a month. F1 TV Premium, a new service launched this year that costs $16.99 per month, will now be included for free on Apple TV.

Apple was behind this year’s hit film, F1 The Movie, which starred Brad Pitt and became the highest-grossing sports film of all-time, surpassing $628 million at the box office worldwide. 

The tech and media company expects to collaborate more with F1 moving forward. “It’s gonna be very, very exciting to innovate and come up with new things,” Cue said. “And we can try things, and it’s very easy when you control all sides of it.”