{"id":24014,"date":"2025-07-26T01:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/24014\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T01:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:03:09","slug":"f1-tv-u-s-2026-availability-in-doubt-as-apple-nears-150-million-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/24014\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 TV U.S. 2026 Availability in Doubt as Apple Nears $150 Million Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs Apple<\/a> reportedly nears a $150 million per-year tie-up<\/a> with Formula 1<\/a>, U.S. subscribers to the motorsport\u2019s own streaming<\/a> offering, F1 TV, have raised questions about the service\u2019s future.
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For $85 per year, American customers can currently watch all F1 sessions ad-free via F1 TV, with additional access to team radios, onboard cameras and non-race programming. But in other markets, F1\u2019s owned offerings have seen changes following new media partnerships.\u00a0
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F1 TV\u2019s legacy is tightly entwined with the company\u2019s evolving media strategy. And what becomes of the product will speak volumes of Liberty Media\u2019s current U.S. ambitions\u2014as well as Apple\u2019s sports stance. What seems unlikely is that the $3 trillion tech titan would see a benefit in hosting two similar, competitive products on its device platforms.\u00a0
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\u201cYou don\u2019t want any potential cannibalization from your partner eating away at customers,\u201d Octagon EVP, global media rights advisory Daniel Cohen said in an interview. \u201cI think F1 can keep [F1 TV], but it would have to be a very different type of product for the U.S. market.\u201d
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A year after Liberty Media took over F1 in 2017, it launched an over-the-top service offering fans live coverage of all race sessions alongside other features. The desire to connect directly with fans was reportedly a key reason F1 ended its broadcast relationship with NBC, signing a deal with ESPN that didn\u2019t include a rights fee.\u00a0
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With improved social media efforts, the popularity of Netflix\u2019s\u00a0Drive to Survive\u00a0and F1 TV, the sport was eager to become \u201ca more multimedia organization\u2014rather than just focusing on TV,\u201d as F1 director of media rights Ian Holmes put it in 2020. At the time, league executives across the sporting world foresaw a potential future where their sports\u00a0were delivered directly to fans via in-house production arms and owned-and-operated apps, with each creating a separate, Netflix-like experience for the Premier League, the NFL, the NBA, F1 and so on.\u00a0But that didn\u2019t come to pass.\u00a0
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As early as 2020, F1 began linking its consumer offering with its traditional TV deals, giving Sky Germany consumers access to F1 TV as part of their subscriptions. \u201cThat may serve as a template for additional markets going forward,\u201d Frank Arthofer, then F1\u2019s global head of digital and licensing, said at the time.
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In the years since, F1 TV has continued to grow. The F1 TV Pro tier, which comes with live race access, was available in 92 territories as of last year, with the U.S. being its biggest market. F1\u2019s app was named the Apple TV App of the Year in 2024, and the organizer launched a higher-priced premium tier this year.\u00a0F1 TV\u2019s popularity was clear on Reddit, where users of the site\u2019s Formula 1 forum openly wondered what a new media partnership might mean for the service\u2014expletives and all<\/a>.
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It has also served as a point of leverage in media negotiations. In 2023, F1 TV Pro launched in India after executives were underwhelmed by the bids submitted by local broadcasters for exclusive rights. \u201cPeople spent all their money on cricket,\u201d Holmes said in 2023. F1\u2019s wealthy fanbase also gives it more flexibility to directly monetize viewer enthusiasm.\u00a0
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\u201cThey can afford to not do bad deals in markets that they deem important for growth,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cFor example, in let\u2019s just say Brazil, if they don\u2019t get the right offer in Brazil, they\u2019ll pop up F1 TV. If they don\u2019t get the right offer in Singapore, they\u2019ll pop up F1 TV.\u201d
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F1 TV\u2019s fate was very much on the table as American bidders eyed the property in recent months. \u201cWe will see what partners want in their deals, and we will see what makes the most sense for F1,\u201d Liberty Media president and CEO Derek Chang said in a May call with Wall Street analysts.\u00a0
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The roughly $150 million per year Apple has reportedly offered for F1\u2019s U.S. rights beginning in 2026 would be a $60 million increase over what ESPN currently pays. Halfway through the 2025 season, ESPN is averaging 1.3 million viewers per race, up 7% over the season-to-date average from 2024. But it remains to be seen what Apple\u2019s distribution plans for racing coverage look like.
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Apple and F1 representatives declined to comment on current negotiations.
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While early reports suggested F1 inventory could be bundled into the $10\/month Apple TV+<\/a> service, the tech company took a different route with MLS action, putting every game into a $99\/year offering<\/a>, alongside whiparound coverage and other content, with discounts for Apple TV+ subscribers and some games available directly to those customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar approach to F1 could see many of the streams and features F1 TV currently offers ported over and\/or expanded upon within a new Apple-backed service.<\/p>\n

\n\tF1 TV could also continue offering its own product, just with tweaks to its pricing and feature list. For instance, the app could be free\u2014but only to those paying for Apple\u2019s service (a la\u00a0the Sky Germany deal). Alternatively, F1 could limit F1 TV\u2019s library to archival content or focus solely on the premium tier, offering specific feeds for the sport\u2019s most committed diehards. Regardless of the route taken, a partnership with Apple represents uncharted terrain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Apple reportedly nears a $150 million per-year tie-up with Formula 1, U.S. subscribers to the motorsport\u2019s own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[304,9265,1687,372,6537,101,3842,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-24014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-apple-tv","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-streaming","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}