As Apple reportedly nears a $150 million per-year tie-up with System 1, U.S. subscribers to the motorsport’s personal streaming providing, F1 TV, have raised questions in regards to the service’s future.
For $85 per yr, American clients can at present watch all F1 classes ad-free through F1 TV, with further entry to group radios, onboard cameras and non-race programming. However in different markets, F1’s owned choices have seen adjustments following new media partnerships.
F1 TV’s legacy is tightly entwined with the corporate’s evolving media technique. And what turns into of the product will communicate volumes of Liberty Media’s present U.S. ambitions—in addition to Apple’s sports activities stance. What appears unlikely is that the $3 trillion tech titan would see a profit in internet hosting two comparable, aggressive merchandise on its system platforms.
“You don’t need any potential cannibalization out of your companion consuming away at clients,” Octagon EVP, international media rights advisory Daniel Cohen mentioned in an interview. “I believe F1 can hold [F1 TV], but it surely must be a really totally different sort of product for the U.S. market.”
A yr after Liberty Media took over F1 in 2017, it launched an over-the-top service providing followers reside protection of all race classes alongside different options. The will to attach immediately with followers was reportedly a key motive F1 ended its broadcast relationship with NBC, signing a cope with ESPN that didn’t embrace a rights charge.
With improved social media efforts, the recognition of Netflix’s Drive to Survive and F1 TV, the game was desirous to develop into “a extra multimedia group—quite than simply specializing in TV,” as F1 director of media rights Ian Holmes put it in 2020. On the time, league executives throughout the sporting world foresaw a possible future the place their sports activities have been delivered on to followers through in-house manufacturing arms and owned-and-operated apps, with every making a separate, Netflix-like expertise for the Premier League, the NFL, the NBA, F1 and so forth. However that didn’t come to cross.
As early as 2020, F1 started linking its client providing with its conventional TV offers, giving Sky Germany shoppers entry to F1 TV as a part of their subscriptions. “Which will function a template for added markets going ahead,” Frank Arthofer, then F1’s international head of digital and licensing, mentioned on the time.
Within the years since, F1 TV has continued to develop. The F1 TV Professional tier, which comes with reside race entry, was out there in 92 territories as of final yr, with the U.S. being its greatest market. F1’s app was named the Apple TV App of the Yr in 2024, and the organizer launched a higher-priced premium tier this yr. F1 TV’s reputation was clear on Reddit, the place customers of the location’s System 1 discussion board overtly puzzled what a brand new media partnership may imply for the service—expletives and all.
It has additionally served as a degree of leverage in media negotiations. In 2023, F1 TV Professional launched in India after executives have been underwhelmed by the bids submitted by native broadcasters for unique rights. “Individuals spent all their cash on cricket,” Holmes mentioned in 2023. F1’s rich fanbase additionally offers it extra flexibility to immediately monetize viewer enthusiasm.
“They will afford to not do unhealthy offers in markets that they deem essential for progress,” Cohen mentioned. “For instance, in let’s simply say Brazil, in the event that they don’t get the precise supply in Brazil, they’ll pop up F1 TV. In the event that they don’t get the precise supply in Singapore, they’ll pop up F1 TV.”
F1 TV’s destiny was very a lot on the desk as American bidders eyed the property in current months. “We’ll see what companions need of their offers, and we are going to see what makes essentially the most sense for F1,” Liberty Media president and CEO Derek Chang mentioned in a Could name with Wall Avenue analysts.
The roughly $150 million per yr Apple has reportedly provided for F1’s U.S. rights starting in 2026 could be a $60 million enhance over what ESPN at present pays. Midway by means of the 2025 season, ESPN is averaging 1.3 million viewers per race, up 7% over the season-to-date common from 2024. But it surely stays to be seen what Apple’s distribution plans for racing protection appear like.
Apple and F1 representatives declined to touch upon present negotiations.
Whereas early experiences steered F1 stock might be bundled into the $10/month Apple TV+ service, the tech firm took a distinct route with MLS motion, placing each recreation right into a $99/yr providing, alongside whiparound protection and different content material, with reductions for Apple TV+ subscribers and a few video games out there on to these clients.
The same strategy to F1 might see lots of the streams and options F1 TV at present provides ported over and/or expanded upon inside a brand new Apple-backed service.
F1 TV might additionally proceed providing its personal product, simply with tweaks to its pricing and have listing. For example, the app might be free—however solely to these paying for Apple’s service (a la the Sky Germany deal). Alternatively, F1 might restrict F1 TV’s library to archival content material or focus solely on the premium tier, providing particular feeds for the game’s most dedicated diehards. Whatever the route taken, a partnership with Apple represents uncharted terrain.
