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.
The end of the article nails it. Streaming isn’t going anywhere. There’s too much money to be made, and well, we humans tend to like money.
Understandably, people wanted to only pay for what they wanted to watch, which resulted in streaming gaining popularity.
But, this also resulted in the fragmentation of the TV landscape, and if anyone wants access to everything, their only option is to pay for myriad services, or gain access illegally. (As for the latter, I get why people do it, but for me, if I don’t have a strong enough want to pay for something, I’ll just forego it.)
Sports are a ready made product for streamers to use in order to gain subscribers. The fan bases and plot lines already exist. F1 will certainly lose some viewership, but they’ll laugh all the way to the bank.
I suspect F1 views any revenue from the US as just extra coins added to their money vault. F1 doesn’t need the US…they prospered without much interest here for many years.
Personally, I enjoy F1, and as my interest in stick and ball sports has waned, I’ll be cancelling my ESPN+ subscription, and switching to an Apple TV sub. I could afford both, but with F1/2/3/Academy leaving ESPN’s platform, I no longer see enough programming to warrant maintaining the service.
This is where The Speed Channel should have gone, but perhaps they were just too early to the game? A dedicated streaming service for all things racing – whether it be motocross, NASCAR, Indycar, F1, Late Models, Sprint Cars, Monster Trucks, World Rally Racing, swamp buggies, lawnmowers, etc. They could have multiple streams (and replays) in the event of overlapping events.
Seems to me there is opportunity for Mr Penske and the France family to put their resources together and start development of a single racing platform (at least for American racing, they could always branch out to world wide events once up and running). They could bring in other racing series leaders as well (NHRA, etc.). Perhaps it’s an area FOX would help create as an offshoot to their current platforms? One would think those who make their living in racing should be able to assemble and direct the best people to promote, cover, and present race coverage. If not, I’m afraid they may all be doomed.
A final thought about F1 and AppleTV – what about Android (and the 10 Google) users who resent any and all things Apple? There are a bunch of them out there, perhaps a few are even F1 fans.
Man oh man I miss Speed Channel, and Speedvision before the rebrand.
I suspect the answer is it wouldn’t be economically viable to have a dedicated streaming platform for most things auto racing.
I think most streaming services view sports as somewhat of a loss leader. They can afford it because many will pay the high subscription fees due to all the other programming, which they typically control/develop more cheaply. Sports get people in the virtual door, so companies will pay a premium for it, hoping the remainder of the service offers enough value that they’ll stay around.
I have reached a point where I’m unwilling to add more services, so if a streamer secures something I really want to access, I’ll cancel another sub and move the funds to the new streamer. My view is I have enough entertainment now, so it’s just a matter of who gets voted off the island. In this case, it’ll be ESPN+, as F1 matters more to me than anything they’ll have left.
The Apple/Android wars are wild. I’d bet you’re correct that some won’t subscribe due to this. As with many things, people wrap the strangest things into their personal identities.
I do have a preference of phone, but pretty much the only thing it impacts is telling people not to call me for tech support on the other platform, as I’m the default “electronics guy” for family and friends. One has variables I don’t care to battle with, so I’m not going to stress myself out trying to fix someone else’s problem due to their platform of choice.
F1 may have prospered before, but don’t fool yourself, they need the US. The US is the biggest TV market, we have one of the (if not the) largest economies, many of the major sponsors are based here, and a lot of those that aren’t want to have a larger presents here. Three of the biggest races on the F1 calendar are now in the US, and they’re giving serious consideration to adding a forth. Cadillac and Ford aren’t spending many millions to join F1 because it’s popular in the Netherlands, they’ve seen the growth here (and around the world) and want to be part of it. Interest in F1 has exploded in the US, fueling most of the series growth the last 5 years. A lot of that had to do with the Nexflix’ Drive to Survive, but ESPN’s Sky Sports broadcasts also deserves a lot of credit for F1’s growth here.
NASCAR’s move to streaming for practice and qualifying has meant that I watch far less racing now than I did even just a couple years ago. I’m 71, retired and have plenty of free time, so in theory I could watch more but the lack of accessibility has changed that. I didn’t mind the switch to Prime, my wife is an Amazon junkie so we already had Prime. I did miss a couple races because I had something else to do and can’t DVR Prime.
The inability to record races is my biggest objection to streaming. I’ll always record an Indycar race if it’s up against a Cup race, or a NASCAR race if it’s showing the same time the Eagles are playing (it’s a lot easier to avoid hearing the results of a race than the results of a football game). I record every session of F1 because their global races are often live while I’m asleep. I even record races I’m watching live in case something happens to distract me or take me away from the broadcast.
It will be interesting to see what effect moving to Apple TV will have on F1’s popularity in the US. I’ve been following F1 since the 60’s. At 15 I had a subscription to weekly racing paper “Autoweek & Competition Press” so I could keep up on F1, Trans Am, Can Am and even NASCAR, so moving the telecasts to Apple TV won’t effect my interest in F1. All it will really do is greatly reduce the amount of F1 that I get to watch, so I’ll just have to read about it instead.
VERY well written thoughts! Thank you for this. This sort of thing keeps me coming to Frontstretch! (Though many wish it didn’t.)
I suppose I may have understated how important the US is to F1. I would disagree that F1 “needs” the US though. They had worldwide popularity before the US began to pay a bit more attention, and were already the pinnacle of auto racing in revenue, technology, and popularity.
I do wonder how much Ford and Cadillac joining F1 is due to the spike in viewership here, and how much is to sell more cars elsewhere. As you probably know, the main reason Buick remains as a GM brand is due to popularity in China, where it’s considered a prestige brand.
I suspect Ford and Cadillac’s interest is due to a bit of both, domestic and export sales, which argues to your view of US importance. Still, Audi is joining F1 as well, and while the US is an important market to them, it’s not a top three market.
I’ve seen many comments about streaming precluding recording of races. I also rarely watch races live. In my experience, most streaming services offer an experience similar to recording…with Amazon/NASCAR, the Amazon app on the Roku Ultra I use at home has the ability to start the race on a delay, and the ability to FF/RW, just as my DVR allows. With F2/F3/Academy, the ESPN+ app allows the same, though the app is buggy and prone to crash.
From what I understand with those using Amazon on Xfinity cable boxes, the ability to time shift was unavailable. I’d almost bet this was a deliberate choice by Comcast, to allow the app but handicap it to a point people were less apt to cut the cord.
FYI, every time I see your screen name, I’m reminded I’ve always wanted a Corvette. I live in an area which does see some snow, and my occupation sometimes requires me to drive to work in icy conditions. So for now, I continue to admire them from afar. Possibly once I hit retirement, I’ll scratch that itch.
My view of F1’s popularity may be different than others since I’ve been a fan since the 60’s. At 14 I had a subscription to the (now defunct) weekly racing newspaper “Autoweek & Competition Press” so I could follow everything going on in F1, Trans Am, Can Am and even NASCAR. One of the first issues I received covered the passing of Jimmy Clark, which hurt as I was a big fan of his. For many years I attended the Grand Prix’ at Watkins Glen, and later Detroit. I never lost interest in F1, and the guys I went to The Glen with back then still follow it. So yes, my view may be different.
My 11 year old grandson became hooked on F1 this year, as a result of playing the F1 video game (he’s a Norris fan). My son is streaming the F1 races for him. My grandson sends me texts during the races to ask me questions about penalties, pit stops, and other things happening, or to find out what happened when he couldn’t watch because of school, sports, etc. I’m planning on surprising him next year for his birthday by taking him to either Miami or COTA.
Where I am we have Comcast and there doesn’t seem to be any workaround to record Prime, and I’m told the same is true of Apple TV?
Corvettes have been a big part of my life. I have a 62 Corvette I’ve owned since 76, and I’ve had others. I owned a Corvette parts company. I crewed for a team that started out road racing Corvettes, before moving up to Trans Am with Camaros. For the last 20 years I’ve crewed for a team that vintage races Corvettes.
I already had Prime Video ($9 a month) when Nascar made the switch, so I didn’t have to fork over any extra $. While the CW Xfinity broadcasts may not be on a pay per view, they have very limited access anyway. The two CW affiliates I can access don’t often (or even usually) show the races. instead I get local soccer games, or rerun sitcoms. Watching a rerun of a race when results are already public is not exactly compelling. So, while there is technical access to the Xfinity races, they just don’t show them. Nascar is going out of their way to make their races less accessible without ponying up more $ to watch a limited number of races. I will not pay for another streaming service to watch F1. i am maxed out or $ and patience.
CW is also televising College Football games, so there isn’t even a chance to see it delayed a couple hours. You’d think they could put the races in real time on another channel in the area. There’s enough of them.
I always watched all three of the NASCAR major series until CW came on the scene and it’s simply not available in my area. I wonder exactly how many fans can’t get CW?
I’ll say that NASCAR made the right move when they went with Amazon as their streaming partner. Amazon offers a big install base for two big reasons no other streamer has: a weekly NFL game and unlimited express shipping for the biggest store on the internet. The numbers Amazon was able to pull in the summer reflect this.