What Apple can offer F1 and what its US deal says about the future

On Friday, Formula 1 and Apple announced the tech giant has won the exclusive broadcast rights to the series in the United States for a five-year period starting in 2026, taking over from ESPN for what Motorsport.com understands is a figure higher than $140m per year.

The deal is a commercial boost for Liberty Media's coffers, but it also represents a shift from a legacy TV broadcaster to a streaming service, which could be a sign of things to come.

What Apple offers F1 in its quest for "exponential growth" in the US

To F1, the Apple tie-up presents an opportunity to make further inroads on the American market. US sponsors have flocked to the series in recent years as it added races in Miami and Las Vegas to complement its US Grand Prix in Austin.

But while ESPN is trending towards a record average viewership of around 1.4m per F1 race in 2025, that number is still dwarfed by other leagues competing for attention in America's rich sports culture. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, called F1's potential for growth "exponential" in the country.

F1 chief Stefano Domenicali's objective is for F1 to become part of the US sports fabric just like American football and other major league sports. "To be relevant in the US, you need to start being part of the culture," Domenicali told select media, including Motorsport.com. "You wake up in an American house and you talk about sport, you talk about the events. And that's the aim that we have together with Apple.

"We know the power of connected people is through them. For the next five years, they're going to be our voice, our main partners in a market that we believe will enable us to grow dimensionally and also qualitative in a very important way. Maybe you think I'm crazy, but that's really what should be our target. People thinking about our sport, not only as a sport but also as something more than that."

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali walks in the paddock

When asked by Motorsport.com what F1's strategy is for sustaining that growth, Domenicali replied: "I think we need to keep being resilient in passing on the message of our sport, not only to normal fans but also as a business platform, and talking about the drivers, team principals.

"Create the story, create the content. That's the only way that you can be relevant in a world where you are bombarded by a lot of information. The only way to do it is to be authentic. All the stakeholders in the US will be part of this equation."

While ESPN is a traditional home of sports coverage in the US, Apple is a much newer kid on the block, having dipped its toes in the water by offering MLB and MLS streaming in recent years.

The short-term pain is that F1 will effectively disappear from linear television, but what the tech giant says it can offer F1 is its full ecosystem and access to millions of wider Apple users on top of a growing subscriber base.

"We're going to bring everything that Apple has to offer, from our retail stores to all of our apps, including our sports app, podcasting, music, books and Apple News," said Cue. "We have so many touch points with our customers, and we're going to bring the brunt of that, like we did with the F1 movie, to the races and qualifying."

The F1 TV question

As a consequence, F1's in-house streaming app F1 TV Premium will no longer be available as a standalone app in the US. But it will be fully integrated into Apple TV and be available to all subscribers as part of the service's $12.99 monthly fee, on top of the company's existing offering.

"We have a very successful business with our direct-to-consumer F1 TV product and it will continue to be available in the US," explained Ian Holmes, F1's chief media rights and broadcasting officer. "It was very important for us that that was the case. But what we wanted to do was build it into the Apple ecosystem, whereby Apple TV subscribers will be able to access F1 TV as part of their Apple TV subscription. For the consumer, this is a fantastic deal."

From Apple's point of view, being a one-stop shop for F1 fans in the country, unlike some other leagues like the NFL where broadcast rights are heavily fragmented, will make it easier to attract new subscribers. That exclusivity also enables it to work closely with F1 on how to evolve the future of the broadcast product, planning to bring over technology used in the F1 movie that can benefit TV coverage worldwide.

What the Apple deal says about F1's changing demographic

The timing of F1's US pivot to streaming is no coincidence, with the series attracting a younger and more diverse fanbase following the Drive to Survive boom and further boosted by Apple's F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which eclipsed $690m to become the highest-grossing sports movie in history.

According to the 2025 Global Fan Survey conducted by Motorsport Network and Formula 1, 47% of new US Formula 1 fans are aged 18-24 and over half are female, with younger audiences more likely to turn to streaming services than linear TV. That change in viewing habits across generations is key to the Apple deal too.

"Fans are getting younger and younger," Domenicali pointed out. "We want to invest in that relationship, and the only way to invest is to make sure that we are connected to the way that they are talking. The younger generation uses different tools. Therefore we believe it's the right way to make sure that we can be more relevant in the future in the US, as we are today in Europe, in Far East Asia, and in the Middle East."

Brad Pitt and Damson Idris on the set of the F1 movie.

Will F1's US deal have global consequences?

If the US Apple TV deal does become a success for both parties, it can become a blueprint of what the future of F1 broadcasting could look like worldwide.

Domenicali said he wanted to be "respectful of the deals we are [in] with the other partners", but didn't rule out exploring streaming opportunities in other markets.

Apple, which doesn't disclose publicly subscriber numbers but is believed to be tracking north of 50 million Apple TV users worldwide, said it's committed to the long-haul too.

"This is what we're doing for the next five years. In my mind I hope this is what we're doing forever," Cue said. "There are more opportunities to go, but we're focused on this. I think we've got a lot to do here."

ESPN's role in F1's American growth

F1 also made a point of paying tribute to ESPN for picking up the series before it was cool, with the sports broadcaster initially being handed the rights for free in 2018 when viewer numbers barely averaged half a million, in the days before Drive to Survive when Austin stood alone on the calendar.

"I really want to thank ESPN for what they did, because they invested in us when no one was ready to invest in us many years ago," Domenicali added. "They were instrumental for our growth.

"But now is the time to look forward. Our duty is to look into the future and try to make sure that F1 can have the right platform of developing our growth."

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