Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that Apple was in active negotiations to acquire the streaming rights for Formula 1 in the United States.
Business Insider now builds on that report and says that “barring a last-minute change,” Apple is poised to secure this deal.
From today’s report:
Apple has submitted a bid worth at least $150 million a year to stream the races starting in 2026. And ESPN isn’t going to try to match or beat that, according to a source familiar with negotiations.
So barring a last-minute change, it looks like Apple, which already has deals to stream some pro baseball games, and all of Major League Soccer’s games, will have a third sports streaming offering next year.
Following the Financial Times report on Tuesday, Puck reported that Apple had submitted an offer over between $150 million and $200 million per year for the rights to F1 streaming in the US. ESPN currently holds those rights and pays around $90 million annually. ESPN’s deal expires after this F1 season, so Apple is set to take the wheel starting with the 2026 season.
If the deal goes through, it will mark a significant expansion of Apple’s sports ambitions. Currently, Apple TV+ is the exclusive home for all Major League Soccer games. Apple TV+ also streams exclusive MLB games each week through its Friday Night Baseball broadcast.
It’s also a big brand synergy opportunity for Apple, following its successful debut of F1: The Movie last month.
There are, of course, many questions about how Apple will stream F1. Presumably it will exist alongside Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass as a separate streaming package. It’s also unclear what the deal will mean for F1 TV, as we questioned earlier this week. It’s possible, or perhaps likely, that Apple will obtain exclusive rights to F1 streaming in the US and therefore withhold access from F1 TV.
F1, baby.
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