After spending the past eight seasons at ESPN, the American broadcasting rights to Formula One are set to swap to Apple for the upcoming season off the backs of a highly successful movie release.
According to Puck’s Dylan Byers, Apple has tendered an offer of $150million per year to Liberty Media for the broadcasting rights to the top level of motorsport in the world.
At the same time, Business Insider is reporting that ESPN is not likely to match the bid for the racing series – with Apple’s pricetag nearly double the $85million per year that the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ is currently paying.
With ESPN reportedly ‘unwilling to match’ the offer laid out by the California tech giant, it’s almost certain that Apple will broadcast the competition next year once the current contract lapses.
What isn’t clear in the reporting is if Apple will produce F1 races themselves – or, if like ESPN, it will simulcast the feed from the UK’s Sky Sports F1.
Adding the sport to Apple’s current stable of sports broadcasting rights is a natural progression after the popularity and success of the ‘F1’ movie starring Brad Pitt.
ESPN is set to lose the rights to Formula One broadcasts after Apple’s $150million bid
This comes off the heels of Apple’s highly popular F1 movie, which grossed over $300m
ESPN initially bought the rights to broadcast the sport in 2018 at a price tag of $85m per year
Apple Studios was one of the five production companies which made the film, and Apple Original Films distributed the motion picture alongside Warner Bros.
At the time of publishing, according to BoxOfficeMojo, the film has grossed over $309million at the box office worldwide on a reported budget of between $200-300m.
Apple has increasingly shown their interest in broadcasting live sports and has paid significant money for streaming rights.
The California company is paying Major League Baseball $85million per year to broadcast games on Friday evenings nationally, retroactive to the 2022 season.
Apple also broadcasts Major League Soccer matches – having paid an undisclosed sum to put every game on its MLS Season Pass platform.
F1 growth in the United States has nearly doubled since ESPN first acquired the rights in 2018. Part of that growth can be attributed to the popularity of Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ docuseries.
With the NBA just locking up a major rights deal for the upcoming season and the NHL going into Year 4 of its deal with Turner and ESPN, Apple’s next logical step would be to acquire the rights to NFL broadcasts.
It’s unclear when an opportunity to do that would present itself.