Apple has shown interest in picking up Formula 1‘s US broadcast rights hot on the heels of Brad Pitt-starrer F1: The Movie’s success.
Apple’s foray into the world of motorsport was a resounding success.
The studio’s F1: The Movie has already grossed $311 million worldwide, and this has triggered its interest in acquiring the sport’s live broadcasting rights.
Currently, ESPN holds this particular contract but it runs out after the 2025 season.
While ESPN has the option to renew the deal, it is being reported that the American sports network has failed to activate an exclusivity clause, which has allowed entities like Apple to now launch a bid for 2026 and beyond.
Apple already has the likes of Major League Baseball (MLB) and Major League Soccer (MLS)’s broadcasting rights.
That said, the Silicon Valley-based corporation isn’t the only big-name player in the game.
Entities like Netflix and Amazon Prime have also shown strong interest in taking up the rights of the sport which has been growing expotentially in the last couple of years.
Netflix already streams the critically acclaimed docu-series ‘Drive to Survive’ and has ventured into live sports broadcasting with its one-off Golf x F1 collaboration ‘The Netflix Cup’.
Amazon Prime on the other hand wants to expand its reach within the motorsport industry after its successful foray into the sport with a five-race NASCAR Cup Series deal.
Doug Perlman, CEO of Sports Media Advisors explained how in the digital-age this could turn out to be mutually benefical for all the parties involved.
“It’s funny, not long ago people were talking about streamers as presenting a challenge in terms of reach. Now the largest streamers are becoming a reach play. It’s crazy how quickly it changed,” he told Front Office Sports.
“They were talking about streamers having to pay a premium for rights because they didn’t offer the same kind of reach.
“Now we see leadership at leagues and other properties talking about some streamers as a reach play.
“They have large subscriber bases, many of whom are not in the pay TV universe, so streaming is the only way to reach them.
“Further, many streaming services can stream content in multiple countries, thus bringing something like Netflix’s Christmas Day stream of the Chiefs-Steelers game to places like Canada, England, and Germany.”
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