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Apple is in discussions to help Tech Group pursue the success of hit films based on the race car series, delve into live sports viewing, and win US rights to screen F1.
iPhone makers are challenging Disney’s ESPN (the current American broadcaster for F1).
It will be the company’s first big box office success since F1, starring Brad Pitt, moved into the business of creating original content for Apple TV+ streaming services.
Liberty Media, the US owner of Formula 1, hopes the film will increase the value of racing rights by attracting young, female and American audiences to the sport, along with Netflix’s drive to survive the documentary series.
F1 generates around $300 million at the box office, representing the pivot to produce mainstream blockbusters after commercial disappointment with Flower Moon and Napoleon’s killer, while garnering Apple’s best-selling film.
Apple previously moved to live sports streaming, signing a contract with Major League Baseball in 2022, broadcasting the game on Friday night and signing a wide range of contracts with Major League Baseball in North America.
The race car series is created in a region that costs $85 million a year from existing broadcast partner ESPN. F1 also streams live races on US streaming services and charges fans directly.
Citi analysts have previously estimated that F1’s next US broadcasting contract could be worth $121 million a year, but before the release of F1 film. Total global media rights revenues rose almost 8% to around $1.1 billion in 2024.
F1 has yet to make a decision on future broadcast arrangements, and ESPN may still retain the rights, according to anyone who knows first hand about the issue.
ESPN had an exclusive period to negotiate a transaction without competition with other bidders. However, that window ended with no trade last year, opening the process to rivals. Other bidders are expected to seek rights too.
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The US is Liberty Media’s priority market, with Miami and Las Vegas adding Miami and Las Vegas to their race calendars in recent years, complementing the Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Cadillac, a US brand backed by billionaire investor Mark Walter’s TWG Motorsports and General Motors, will join the grid as its 11th team in 2026.
Formula 1 viewers on ESPN doubled from 554,000 viewers in the 2018 race to roughly 1.1 million in 2024, the year after Liberty Media took over Formula 1.
Apple does not break down the revenues of Apple TV+ and its production company Apple Studios. Instead, they include them in their annual service revenue of $10 billion, including products such as the App Store, Icloud, and Apple Pay.
Apple, Liberty Media and F1 declined to comment.
