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In October 2025, Formula 1 and Apple announced a five-year, $750 million media rights deal, a landmark partnership in modern sports broadcasting. Valued at ~$150 million per year – nearly double F1’s previous US deal with ESPN – the agreement makes Apple the exclusive American broadcaster of the sport. For a property that is continuing to ride a viewership boom both in the US and globally, this deal is both validation of F1’s momentum and a signal of Apple’s broader ambitions in live sport.
The implications of this deal go far beyond racing. For fans, it accelerates the move towards platform exclusivity, where premium sports are increasingly locked within digital ecosystems rather than scattered across traditional networks, as with Amazon’s exclusivity over the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.
For rightsholders, it signals a growing belief that media rights deals should not just pay well in the present, but also drive long-term audience and brand growth in the future. The question is no longer “Who pays most for rights?” but rather “Who can build the most value around the sport?” Apple’s ability to integrate F1 across devices and services gives it an edge that ESPN or NBC cannot replicate.
Formula 1’s US audience has more than doubled since the beginning of its ESPN partnership in 2018 thanks in large part to Netflix’s Drive to Survive and growing mainstream awareness. The 2024 season averaged ~1.5 million US views per race, with a peak of 3.6 million in Miami, and the box office success of F1: The Movie has only compounded the engagement.
Apple’s partnership aims to embed that fandom inside its already world-class ecosystem spanning Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple News, turning each race into a multi-platform content and commerce event.
The timing is significant. As noted by co-host of The Attention Shift podcast Lee Radbourne, this deal comes at a time when many sports rights are plateauing in value, with broadcasters increasingly reluctant to up their bids. Apple’s move defies that trend because (i) it has financial might unmatched by incumbent broadcasters and (ii) its rationale is different to theirs, buying audience engagement rather than just airtime.
Apple’s willingness to spend far above ESPN’s previous rate (~$80M per year) only makes sense through the lens of ecosystem value.
Formula 1 fits neatly into Apple’s existing ecosystem: one of the world’s best premium properties, and a global, high-tech sport with a large emphasis on storytelling. F1’s audience also skews younger (43% under 35) and more gender-balanced (42% female), as per the 2025 mid-season report. For Apple, this translates to more potential users and higher LTVs. And all of this is magnified again when we consider how this opens access to non-English-speaking markets, as explained by Camb.ai co-founder Akshat Prakash.
Each race weekend becomes a huge brand activation opportunity: connecting Apple Watch fitness data, Apple Music playlists, and exclusive Apple TV+ content around a single event. This deal should not be viewed as Apple flexing its financial superiority by overpaying for a shiny asset. Instead, the tech giant is buying cultural relevance among the next generation of sports fans, for which F1’s growth curve provides the perfect vehicle.
F1 sharing aspects of its identity with Apple is what matters most here. Apple’s first foray into live sports was Major League Soccer in 2023. After a Messi-driven hype train, the experiment has since underperformed, with average viewership sitting at ~120,000, versus the 343,000 previously delivered by ESPN. Meanwhile the Bundesliga has moved in the opposite direction, partnering with creators like Mark Goldbridge on YouTube, drawing huge 500k+ audiences. The take-away is that it is not about who has the rights, but rather who has access, identity, and engagement, wherever the fan already is.
For innovators and investors, the Apple-F1 partnership presents three clear openings – and no doubt many others downstream.
First, demand is rising for the infrastructure that enables ecosystem integration. Platforms that unify ticketing, content, engagement, commerce, and more. As more rightsholders enter into deals with ecosystem players like Apple, Amazon, and YouTube, there will be significant value in the enabling technology.
Secondly, the deal reinforces the premium on audience ownership. Apple’s objective is to own the user’s attention (not just rent it for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon). Leagues and start-ups alike must find ways to capture and monetise first-party fan data, or risk losing the fan relationship to the platforms. There are opportunities here for winners in data, analytics, and sponsorship technology.
Ultimately, Apple’s $750 million wager is less about Formula 1 itself than about redefining how sports fits within a digital ecosystem, and a future where being willing to fork out major sums in rights deals becomes table stakes.
Expect ecosystem bidders like Apple, Amazon, and YouTube to challenge traditional networks with offers rooted in data, reach, and fan engagement, rather than purely viewership.
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