Apple enters battle for US Formula 1 broadcast rights after ‘F1: The Movie’

After the success of its film F1: The Movie, Apple is weighing up the acquisition of Formula 1’s American broadcast rights, the Financial Times reports.

Current broadcast partner ESPN looks set to relinquish its broadcast rights at the conclusion of the F1 2025 season, leaving several interested parties looking to take over.

Apple considers US Formula 1 broadcast rights

A high-octane battle to acquire the rights to broadcast Formula 1 in the United States is picking up between ESPN, Netflix, and Apple ahead of the 2026 season as the entities behind Drive to Survive and F1: The Movie consider making the leap into live motorsport.

Currently, US F1 broadcast rights are held by ESPN, an American sports network now owned by the Walt Disney Company — but that may be changing.

The network will hold the rights until the end of the 2025 season and can still negotiate a renewal. However, ESPN also allowed a period of exclusivity to lapse earlier this year; during that exclusivity period, it could have renewed its F1 contract without the sport pursuing more lucrative broadcast deals elsewhere.

Now, Apple has entered the ring as another prospective rights holder.

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Why is Apple pursuing F1 broadcasting rights?

Apple already has strong ties to Formula 1 thanks to Apple Original Films’ role in producing this summer’s blockbuster F1: The Movie. The film stars actors Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as Formula 1 drivers attempting to save their APXGP team from being sold off into the wrong hands. It has already netted more than $293 million at the global box office.

With icons like Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski involved in the production process, F1: The Movie promised heaps of action curated alongside Formula 1 itself. The series was a major player in advising on the film, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was one of its executive producers.

Clearly that process resonated with the folks at Apple; as the Financial Times reports, Apple is looking at acquiring broadcast rights from ESPN.

Apple has also entered the world of live sports; it airs Friday Night Baseball for the MLB and has full broadcast rights for Major League Soccer for the next 10 years. Adding Formula 1 to a portfolio that also includes hit  shows like Ted Lasso and Severance would be a strong bid for the company’s future.

What other companies are interested in F1’s US broadcast rights?

Netflix and Amazon have both expressed interest in acquiring Formula 1’s US broadcast rights.

Netflix currently streams Drive to Survive, the F1 docuseries that transforms the key storylines of each season into a collection of 30-60 minute episodes designed to appeal to both new and existing audiences for F1.

The series has proved to be a resounding success; many new fans found their footing in the sport through DTS, and Netflix could be looking for a way to keep those fans on its service.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime has also expressed interest in acquiring US broadcast rights. This year, its five-race stretch as a broadcaster for the NASCAR Cup Series was met with praise from fans who appreciated the quality of both the in-race commentary and post-race coverage.

Prime’s current ties to F1 may be more tenuous, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t see the value in holding the rights to such a quickly growing sport.

Right now, we’re experiencing a shift in the way sports are broadcast in the United States, with events increasingly shifting away from television and moving onto streaming platforms. While traditional cable-based broadcasts have long been the primary mode of sports viewership, many consumers have increasingly ditched the cable package to instead invest in a variety of streaming platforms.

Doug Perlman, CEO of Sports Media Advisors, told Front Office Sports, “It’s funny, not long ago people were talking about streamers as presenting a challenge in terms of reach. Now the largest streamers are becoming a reach play. It’s crazy how quickly it changed.

“They were talking about streamers having to pay a premium for rights because they didn’t offer the same kind of reach. Now we see leadership at leagues and other properties talking about some streamers as a reach play. They have large subscriber bases, many of whom are not in the pay TV universe, so streaming is the only way to reach them.

”Further, many streaming services can stream content in multiple countries, thus bringing something like Netflix’s Christmas Day stream of the Chiefs-Steelers game to places like Canada, England, and Germany.”

Of course, F1 has a significantly different approach to its broadcast rights than do most sports. International broadcast deals are a major source of income for Formula One Management, which distributes a “global feed” to various companies that pay for the rights.

Because of that, it’s unlikely that a US-based streaming deal in the F1 space will be accessible to other countries — though if a move to Netflix, Apple, or Prime proves fruitful, it could represent a new path forward for the FOM.

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