F1 President and Chief Executive Officer Stefano Domenicali believes an exclusive broadcast rights deal agreed with Apple will continue to grow the sport in the United States.
Apple has secured the U.S. rights, having signed a five-year agreement worth approximately $140million, annually, with the announcement coming on the Friday morning of the MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix.
It will see Apple replace ESPN as the home of F1 in America from 2026 until at least 2031.
Taking F1 from a traditional television broadcaster and signing a deal with a streaming service could be seen as something of a risk for the sport, but as its demographic continues to skew towards a younger market, the appeal is also obvious.
“I think this represents another step of what we want to achieve in getting bigger in this incredible country,” Domenicali said during a press conference at the Circuit of the Americas following the announcement of the Apple move.
“It’s something special because we recognise that Apple represents for us an incredible opportunity to have the best partner in the world, to improve what we have done so far as Formula 1 and, of course, in the U.S.”
Domenicali also took the chance to thank current broadcaster ESPN for committing to F1 when it was still aiming to make a mark in the U.S.
“We have to thank ESPN, for doing a very good job. They were the first to believe in us when no-one believed in Formula 1. So, I really take the opportunity to thank them for what they are still doing,” he added.
“But, of course, in life, we always need to think forward. And we do believe that this partnership will allow us to be even closer with our fans. The reach will be phenomenal. As you know, this market provides a huge potential. The average age of the American audience is very, very young. They (Apple) are going to be our voice.
“I see Apple, not only when we’re talking about connectivity, technology, communication, it’s social relevancy. That’s where we should aim thinking big at Formula 1”
Why Apple?
For Apple, it gives the company a marquee brand to add to its minimal sporting output and continues its close ties to F1 that were made during the production of the recent record-breaking film.
‘F1: The Movie’ is, by several metrics, the most successful sports film of all time, made by Apple Films and utilising state of the art cameras and technology to bring moviegoers into the cockpit alongside Brad Pitt’s leading man.
The film was released during the summer, at a time when the American rights deal was still being negotiated with ESPN and Netflix were also interested in landing the next contract for the U.S.
In the end, ESPN refused to go above the $90million annually it paid for the current, three-year cycle, while a move to Netflix – home to the hugely popular ‘Drive to Survive’ F1 docuseries – failed to materialise.
F1 was happy to wait it out, as the contract holders, ESPN had an exclusive negotiation window that came and went – while talks with Apple would only progress once it was clear just how successful the movie was going to be.
“I am so excited about this opportunity. I think we’re going to do some amazing things. And I’ve been at Apple for 36 years, and it’s been an incredible run,” said Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue.
“I’ve been part of the incredible special moments. And this is one of them for us. But we’re quite excited about working with everyone.
“I’ve known Stefano for a long time. The F1 movie made us closer with the whole team and seeing what was possible. The movie’s been a huge hit – biggest sports movie of all time. Brad Pitt’s biggest movie of all time. We haven’t even released it yet on Apple TV.
“We’re excited about the opportunity of growth in the U.S. Formula 1 has gotten way bigger. But the honest truth is it still can grow exponentially. It’s a huge, huge opportunity. It’s more than just racing.”
What Does it Mean?
Netflix certainly paved the way for the shift from pure race coverage to interest in the personalities around the sport – be it drivers, team principals or other members of the supporting cast – and Cue insists ‘Drive to Survive’ will not be threatened by the new broadcasting deal with Apple.
“The fanbase loves the drivers, loves the team principals. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’re going to bring innovation,” he said.
“It’s going to be really easy for fans to get access to all of the races, practice, qualifying, sprint races. So, we couldn’t be more excited.
Netflix is highly available on all of our platforms and they’re a great partner to Apple. We love the fact that they’re doing ‘Drive to Survive’
Eddie Cue
“Obviously, we’re going to make it available to every subscriber of Apple TV, of which we have many, many tens of millions of customers in the U.S. that watch our shows from ‘Ted Lasso’ to ‘Silo’ to ‘Slow Horses’ and ‘Severance’.
“Netflix is highly available on all of our platforms and they’re a great partner to Apple. We love the fact that they’re doing ‘Drive to Survive’ and I think we’ll drive more viewers to them, and they’ll drive more viewers to us and that’s a win-win for both of us.”
For Cue, winning the F1 rights will also give Apple a chance to implement some technological advances in the next five years.
“We’ve got a lot of new ideas and things that we’re going to innovate on from the broadcast channel that you’ll see that I don’t want to announce,” he added.
“We have some surprises. But rest assured, we are huge, huge fans. And so, we are very focused on doing the right thing for fans.
All F1 races will stream through the Apple TV app, while some races and all practice sessions will stream for free, while F1TV will also remain available to fans in the U.S., and will be integrated with the Apple offering at no additional cost.
End of the ESPN Era
Earlier rumours had hinted towards ESPN retaining part of the rights, potentially to show the three American races – Miami, Austin and Las Vegas – through its own channels.
F1 returned to the ESPN network in 2018, with the Disney-owned broadcaster paying no traditional fee as Liberty Media wanted to get as many living rooms across the United States tuned into its product.
It stayed with ESPN for the following two, three-year agreements – the first costing $5million annually before the huge step to the current deal in place.
“I think the journey’s been an incredible one over the last 10 years. I think we are at the culmination of another step of this journey,” said Derek Chang, Chief Executive Officer at Liberty Media.
“When you look back and you look where F1 was when we first acquired it, a phenomenal sport, great for those racing fans and sporting fans, but not that well-known, and particularly in the U.S. to the broader audiences.
“I think Drive to Survive certainly took it a whole other step in terms of who was able to access the F1 story and the F1 narrative, and that’s been phenomenal. And Stefano and his team, I mean, to their credit, they haven’t just sort of rested on that.
“I think evidence of that was the movie that we did with Apple with Joe Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer, and how everyone gathered around that. It’s about sort of understanding what the audiences are – they’re younger, more diverse, more digitally savvy.
“It’s also understanding the media landscape. And I think people who ask the question of reach and what does this imply for reach and all that sort of stuff have somewhat of an antiquated view of what reach is, and very much stuck in a traditional television sort of way.”
Technological Approach
Apple is keen to push the envelope with the technology used to cover F1 races, although it currently remains to be seen whether it will put its own broadcasting team in place or take the F1TV output or, as ESPN has done, the Sky Sports feed.
Either way, Cue feels the approach Apple is aiming to put in place when it takes over the contract from the 2026 season onwards can be helpful to those who already show F1.
“I think that the existing broadcasters hopefully will get some benefits because we’ll push, working together on making the broadcast better,” he added.
“As you know, this broadcast goes out to everyone. And so, I think that the technology, for example, that we brought last year to the movie and putting the cameras in the cars and things like that are things that we would like to see continued.
“And if we do that, everyone will benefit. If you ask me, ‘do I expect this to be longer than five years?’ I do because I expect that we’ll be very successful together and we’ll want to continue doing it.”
