{"id":6874,"date":"2025-07-19T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/6874\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T21:52:10","slug":"what-drive-to-survive-data-reveals-about-rumoured-f1-streaming-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/6874\/","title":{"rendered":"What ‘Drive to Survive’ data reveals about rumoured F1 streaming rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netflix docuseries\u00a0Drive to Survive\u00a0has been transformative in growing Formula 1 viewership in the United States \u2014 but is it time for the streaming service to change tactics?<\/p>\n

New data from Netflix reveals that, while\u00a0DTS still remains extremely popular, its growth is slowing. A move to broadcasting live sports, though, could signal the service\u2019s next big move.<\/p>\n

Netflix,\u00a0Drive to Survive, and Formula 1\u2019s American growth<\/p>\n

A new report detailing internal Netflix viewership data from January through June of 2025 has revealed a few key statistics that could signal a major change in the platform\u2019s relationship to Formula 1.<\/p>\n

As published in the Sports Business Journal, season 7 of\u00a0Drive to Survive still remains the most-watched sports documentary on the platform, with 10.4 million views \u2014 far outpacing releases like\u00a0Court of Gold (6.6 million views) and\u00a0Full Swing season 3 (4.1 million views).<\/p>\n

While 10.6 million views \u2014 not\u00a0viewers, but views \u2014 is still impressive, it also represents a 10.3 per cent drop in views when compared to the same period of time in 2024.<\/p>\n

Netflix has historically not released viewing data, so comparisons with previous seasons is impossible; however, comparisons between season 7 and season 6 of\u00a0Drive to Survive reveals that consumed hours of the series have dropped 16 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024.<\/p>\n

More on Netflix and \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Opinion: Netflix would be the ideal broadcast partner for Formula 1 in the USA<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Five reasons why F1\u2019s Drive to Survive success hasn\u2019t been replicated<\/a><\/p>\n

In many ways, the drop in interest is not wholly unexpected. Formula 1\u2019s popularity in the United States can largely trace its roots to a confluence of factors that all took place at the same time.<\/p>\n

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic confined citizens of the world to their homes for an indeterminate amount of time, many Americans turned to Netflix to ease the boredom and anxiety of lockdown.\u00a0Drive to Survive had released a new season just prior to the lockdowns, and many Americans who had never previously heard of F1 were quickly entranced by the decidedly European glamour and high drama the sport put on offer.<\/p>\n

Further, Formula 1 was one of the first live sports to return in the midst of the pandemic. Many fans of other, more American sports (American football, baseball, hockey) craved the communal experience of watching a live sporting event with others on social media, and F1 slotted in to fill that gap.<\/p>\n

The popularity of F1 in America continued even beyond the pandemic. In 2021, fans flocked to the Circuit of The Americas in record numbers for the United States Grand Prix, which prompted the creation of the Miami and Las Vegas Grands Prix, along with countless American sponsorship deals and more American-focused content.<\/p>\n

Now, though, that explosion in popularity looks to be slowing \u2014 but Netflix has been experimenting with another possible future for sports on its platform.<\/p>\n

Netflix, the WWE, and Formula 1\u2019s US broadcast rights<\/p>\n

Netflix made a major leap at the start of 2025: It inked a deal to air the WWE\u2019s weekly \u201cRaw\u201d shows on Monday nights \u2014 and the reception has been impressive.<\/p>\n

The first \u201cRaw\u201d broadcast on Netflix, on January 6, amassed 6.9 million views. The following week, the show netted 4.4 million views \u2014 already outpacing the views of\u00a0Drive to Survive\u00a0during the first six months of 2025.<\/p>\n

In sum, \u201cRaw\u201d has netted 88.6 million views in 2025, with an average of 3.4 million views per broadcast.<\/p>\n

Could this illustrate a new way forward for Formula 1?<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of 2025, ESPN will end its run as F1\u2019s American broadcast partner, and while there is still a possibility that ESPN could renew its rights, it seems far more likely that those rights will be sold to a streaming platform like Netflix or Apple.<\/p>\n

Both platforms have expressed interest in acquiring US F1 broadcast rights \u2014 Netflix as a way to capitalize on the\u00a0DTS\u00a0boom, and Apple as a way to capitalize on the success of\u00a0F1: The Movie.<\/p>\n

Airing live sports on streaming platforms is still a fairly new phenomenon. Netflix broke major ground by airing two NFL games live on Christmas day in 2024, netting 65 million viewers in the United States alone, and other platforms have followed suit.<\/p>\n

Both Netflix and Apple have a vested interest in Formula 1, and in utilizing their platforms to continue amassing ever-greater audiences \u2014 and the continued, if declining, popularity of F1 in America could very well lend itself to the establishment of one of those streaming services as the hub of F1 in the United States.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0The five most embarrassing disqualifications in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix docuseries\u00a0Drive to Survive\u00a0has been transformative in growing Formula 1 viewership in the United States \u2014 but is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,825,44,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-6874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}