Apple bets on engines: Formula 1 TV rights in the US in its sights
The existing contract with Espn, the sports arm of Disney, is expiring. The boost from the success of the F1 film with Brad Pitt
by Andrea Biondi
2' min read
2' min read
Apple has put its foot on the accelerator and is looking straight at the Formula 1 grid. According to sources close to the negotiations, after having conquered the box office with F1, the film starring Brad Pitt that pulverised the Cupertino company's box-office records (over 300 million dollars), Apple is now looking at the next lap: securing the television rights to exclusively broadcast the Formula 1 World Championship in the United States.
The news, relayed by Ft, comes as the existing contract with Espn, Disney's sports arm, nears the finishing line. From 2025, the race for the rights will be on and Apple - which has already moved important pawns in the world of live sports in the past (Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer) - is ready to do battle.
The Strategy
.Behind the move is evidently a strategy that aims at a precise objective: to transform Apple TV+ into a global platform, no longer just for art series and award-winning films, but also for live events capable of catalysing the general public. And in this sense, Formula 1 is the undisputed queen of sports entertainment: glamour, speed, technology. The perfect mix to attract the young and female audience in the US that Liberty Media, the US owner of the Circus, has been courting for some time.
The numbers
.The numbers speak for themselves: since 2018 - the year after Liberty took over F1 - the American audience on ESPN has doubled from 554,000 to over 1.1 million average viewers per race. And in 2024, with record stages in Australia, Monaco, Spain, Canada and Austria, the average went up again: 1.3 million per GP. A rise also with off-track strategies: the new stages in Miami and Las Vegas, the planned entry in 2026 of the Cadillac team (in partnership with General Motors) and, of course, the narrative offered by the docuseries Drive to Survive on Netflix.
Apple realised this before others. The film with Pitt was the first real commercial success for Apple Studios, which had so far garnered more prestige than box office (see the disappointments with Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon). With F1, however, came the turning point: large audiences, packed theatres, and booming merchandising. And that's just the beginning. Because Cupertino now wants the whole pie.
