Formula 1 is almost certainly headed to Apple, lapping the incumbent ESPN in a race that reportedly had no other bidders.
Apple has offered $150 million/year to acquire U.S. rights to Formula 1, according to Dylan Byers of Puck, Isabella Simonetti of The Wall Street Journal and Peter Kafka of Business Insider. Byers was first to report this week that Apple was willing to meet the F1 asking price of at least $150 million, a figure that it does not appear any other company was willing to entertain.
Per all three reports, ESPN has no intention of meeting that price — and Byers reported Friday that there are no other bidders.
With Apple offering twice as much per year than the only other bidder, F1 owner Liberty Media is now considered “likely to accept” the offer, per Byers.
A move to Apple would mark a dramatic shift in media distribution for Formula 1, which has never aired exclusively on a streaming service. ESPN has held rights since 2018 and carried races on its three main networks — ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 — but never any solely on ESPN+.
Apple already owns exclusive global rights to Major League Soccer and U.S. rights to a package of Major League Baseball games. As Apple does not submit to Nielsen measurement, it is impossible to know how many viewers have watched sporting events on its platforms — but the MLS deal in particular has generated no shortage of concerns about the league’s exposure.
While Apple does not have the kind of multi-year relationship with Formula 1 that Netflix established by way of its “Drive to Survive” docuseries, the company did produce the new feature film “F1” that has grossed hundreds of millions domestically and worldwide. Netflix ultimately never made the decision to extend its creative relationship with F1 into an actual partnership.
Apple has thus far been highly selective in media rights negotiations, so it is somewhat surprising that the company chose to reset what had been a stagnant market. Then again, it may be the case that Apple sees opportunity in F1 that in its view justifies the price tag.
