ESPN went out with a bang in the F1 era on the network.
As the global racing giant moves to Apple next year, ESPN celebrated with record ratings for the 2025 season where Lando Norris won his first world championship over a hard-charging four-time champ in Max Verstappen.
Although Formula 1 is undoubtedly the world’s most popular racing series, it always lagged far behind American series like NASCAR and IndyCar stateside. However, with the rise of Drive to Survive and races on ESPN, the gap has closed to where it is closer than ever before, especially among younger fans.
But just as F1’s momentum was arguably at an all-time high in the USA, the series will move to Apple TV+ in their next TV deal in 2026. Facing a choice between continuing on ESPN or taking the money from a streamer, F1 chose Apple’s revenue over ESPN’s exposure. And it’s not lost on ESPN executives that they helped put F1 in a position where they could command $750 million on the open market over five years.
“I think we’ve helped each other, right?” ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions John Suchenski said according to Sports Business Journal. “I think we have gotten some credit, maybe not as vocal or known around the industry as maybe it could have been.”
“Part of the problem with being so successful at increasing interest and viewership in the property is it becomes more valuable and more people are interested in it and you know how the industry works: You have to pay more to keep it and you have to find ways to recoup that investment,” Suchinski added.
Ultimately, F1 took the money and ran with Apple in an exclusive deal that will have races, qualifying, and practice on the Apple TV+ platform.
What that means for F1 fans is that it now moves behind a streaming paywall. It also means that for F1, it will reach a much smaller audience.
Apple TV+ has reportedly 45 million subscribers, but that comes with a couple caveats. First, it’s notoriously a difficult effort to know with certainty how many subscribers a streaming platform has unless they are willingly and transparently communicating that themselves. That has always been an issue throughout Apple’s deal with Major League Soccer, although we are finally starting to learn a few numbers.
Second, it’s not known just how much of those millions of subscribers are based in the USA, where Apple will have rights to Formula 1. Whatever the percentage is, it is well short of ESPN, which has tens of millions more subscribers through linear and streaming. It’s at least 60 million still subscribed through traditional bundles and millions more who have cut the cord and now have access through streaming.
That last point is the one that is so difficult to figure out in the Apple-F1 move. To this point, Apple has been concerned with owning global sports rights. That was one of the central reasons why MLS was an attractive proposition for the tech giant – they could sell Lionel Messi and the beautiful game around the world to a global audience.
But for F1, Apple only has American rights. They are making a huge bet that there are enough hardcore fans that will jump on board as new subscribers to make it worthwhile.
But that runs counterintuitive to what has built Formula 1 fandom in the United States, which has been the ease and accessibility for new fans to follow along. The combination of Drive to Survive on Netflix and having every race air commercial free on ESPN is an enormous factor in the series’ growth.
Are those same fans that jumped on board during the pandemic or seeing a race live on ESPN on Sunday morning waiting for football to begin going to have it at the front of their mind to jump to Apple TV in those same timeslots? Or are these new fans going to say that they had a good few years following the series and ultimately move on to something else?
Other networks and leagues wouldn’t want to readily admit this, but there is an inherent value in sports leagues being on ESPN. It is the worldwide leader in sports for a reason. And from UFC to the NHL to Major League Baseball, there are certain advantages to being in business with the media company that is the default choice for scores of sports fans in America.
It’s impossible to tell what F1’s ratings would have been the last several years had they not been on ESPN. But what we do know is that while they were partners there, they set ratings records in a market they have been chasing for decades. F1 will be far less visible on Apple TV+ than they were on ESPN. And it will make it that much harder to add the new fans that they were able to bring aboard in recent times.
It’s an increasingly difficult choice when trying to decide between instant revenue and long-term reach. We saw IndyCar move in the opposite direction with Fox Sports in a deal that has seen every race on network television and even an equity stake in the series from the network.
F1 and Apple are making a bet in the completely opposite direction. It may be worth $750 million now. But if the audience sinks and the series isn’t the sport du jour that it is now, it may be worth much less the next time around.
About Matt Yoder