Formula 1 will move its United States broadcasts from ESPN to Apple TV beginning in 2026, it announced last week.
This creates a huge barrier to viewing F1 races for many American viewers, as now they will have to purchase the Apple TV app in order to watch all 24 races next season instead of being able to easily watch them on cable television.
That’s fine for younger audiences who are more open and willing to utilize streaming platforms over cable. But the older audiences? That’s a problem.
There is a far greater chance of people being able to find and access ESPN than they are able to find and access a streaming platform, especially one that is more niche such as Apple TV. By moving to streaming only, F1 is alienating a portion of its fanbase who is either unable or unwilling to move to streaming with the series.
But F1 could have heeded the cautionary tale of NASCAR, which moved five of its 36 NASCAR Cup Series races over to Amazon Prime Video this year. Although Prime established itself as far and away the best overall broadcast coverage of the races this season, there was still a substantial amount of people who refused to make the jump to Prime with everybody else due to either a lack of resources or the unwillingness to do so.
Some were already upset that the NASCAR Xfinity Series would be moving to The CW this season before Prime came up. While The CW is technically a network station, its availability is not in every single area of the country, leaving some without the ability to watch Xfinity racing.
But at least the Xfinity Series puts all its races on network TV. Both the Cup Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series have put an overwhelming amount of races on cable television instead of the easier-to-watch network television. The Cup Series barely had any races on network NBC in the second half of the season — not even the Southern 500, which is broadcasting malpractice in and of itself.
Then there’s the Truck Series, which rarely gets any time on FOX and is instead shoved to FOX Sports 1 (which is better than when the ARCA Menards Series gets relegated to FOX Sports 2; then you have the championship race netting 32,000 viewers).
Those who want to watch ARCA Menards Series East and West races? Or zMAX CARS Tour events? Those are largely available on FloRacing, which relies on annual subscriptions (which are worth it, but some people still won’t budge if it’s not on cable television). Sports car racing has grown more and more likely to be streamed unless it’s a major endurance race such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona or 12 Hours of Sebring.
And don’t even mention NHRA coverage, which runs on a several-hour tape delay and rarely (if ever) gets any live coverage of its events.
In fact, it feels like the only one who has gotten it totally right is the NTT IndyCar Series, which debuted on FOX this year. In the new media deal it signed, all IndyCar races are televised nationally on FOX, which would be huge if the series knew how to better market its races that aren’t the Indianapolis 500.
With the rise of streaming and general affinity of broadcasters to push motorsports off of network television has only further attributed to the rising lack of accessibility for U.S. viewers to watch their favorite racing series. There’s no easy way to watch most series anymore; even in NASCAR, the Cup Series requires somewhere around a half-dozen channels if you want to watch the full 38-race season (including the two exhibition race weekends).
But at the same time, this is a sign of changing times. Streaming is only becoming more and more popular (though the more streaming apps there are, the more it just feels like cable without physically having cable). Fans now have to make the tough decision on whether or not they want to spend the money to watch their favorite product.
Because the reality is this type of broadcasting isn’t going away anytime soon. Once NASCAR’s next media deal comes up in 2032, who knows what streaming sites will want to step up and broadcast races?
It doesn’t make it any less frustrating when there are what feels like 100 different hoops to jump through to watch everything you want to watch, though.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.