- Domenicali believes Apple’s various products and services will ultimately provide greater reach
- F1 averaged record 1.32m viewers in final season on ESPN
- Apple will air select races for free in its first year to improve accessibility for fans
- Apple and Netflix to both broadcast this season’s Canadian Grand Prix
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali believes Apple will deliver greater reach for the series in the future than its previous US broadcast partner ESPN.
This year, Formula One will have a new broadcast home in the US thanks to a new deal with Apple worth a reported US$150 million per season. While more financially lucrative, it ends the series’ successful partnership with ESPN that began in 2018 and averaged a record 1.32 million viewers in its final year.
But, speaking during a preseason media call, Domenicali said Apple’s reach across its various products and services will benefit Formula One more in the long term.
“When we are talking about Apple in the US, we are talking about a new partner of Formula One that is believing in us with a great plan of being the protagonist of the growth in the US of the sport through their channels, through their applications, through their way of pushing a product that is not only technological, but is a new tool of connectivity,” the Italian said.
“Apple is in the hands of the majority of people because it allows everyone to be connected. We want to be connected and relevant, and that’s where we believe that we took the right decision to go in this direction.
“I don’t want to, for a single second, talk badly about the ESPN relationship because they were the first to believe in us. I need to thank them and as you know, with Disney World, the collaboration is huge in the area of licensing and other things that we are doing together. I had good meetings with the new CEO of Disney, Josh D’Amaro, to talk about bigger steps that we can do even more.
“But I do believe that the reach that we’re going to have through the streaming platform, through Apple, will be even bigger in the future and it is what we want to test in a market that is more mature than the others. It will allow us to enter in the houses of other people in a different way, in great quality that is very important for us. So, that is what I believe the Apple relationship will bring to us in the American market.”
Apple does not disclose its total subscriber numbers but does have a global media rights partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS), whose commissioner Don Garber previously said that the league averaged 120,000 unique viewers per match on the platform in 2025.
Details around the tech giant’s Formula One coverage are still to be confirmed, but Apple TV+ will air every practice and qualification, sprint race, and Grand Prix from this season at no additional cost to subscribers, who will also gain access to F1 TV Premium. All practice sessions will be available for free, as will selected races in a bid to improve accessibility.
Offering Formula One for free at various points of the season will be an important tactic to raise awareness among US fans, particularly in the sport’s quest to keep attracting younger viewers – something that Domenicali believes better suits a streaming partner than a traditional linear broadcaster.
“We have a worldwide sport, but the US markets for sure are markets where we can see the potential growth in terms of interest, in terms of awareness, in terms of business,” he said. “And we do believe that the partner that we have chosen in the world of streaming is the right one, if you consider that the American market in terms of streaming is one of the most mature ones, if you compare with others like Europe or other ones.
“Apple will be very pushy to use all their tools that they have, with all the different applications and platforms that they have, not only in terms of Apple TV – and I just want to reiterate the fact that all our F1 [TV] subscribers can connect with Apple TV, being part of their offers, spending less and there will be a lot of content that they’re going to push.
“And we don’t have to forget it’s also in the stream of our [audience], that are younger and younger in the US, and 40 per cent is female, 60 per cent is male today. So we believe that is the right angle to push in that dimension specifically.”
Update: It has since been announced that Apple has signed a deal with Netflix, which will see the Canadian Grand Prix broadcast live across both platforms in the US – a first for the two streaming giants. The collaboration will also see the latest season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive made available to Apple TV subscribers.
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