After the success of “F1” film: Apple supposedly wants to buy rights to Formula 1

Motorship of classic kind has long been considered outdated-after all, Formula 1 still rely on gasoline burning instead of clean electric drives. But people’s interest in the crushing engines with fossil feeding still seems to be great.

Apple also experiences this: the group celebrated its greatest cinema success with the Brad-Pitt strip “F1”, which was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures together with Apple Original Films. Now Apple apparently wants to get a Formula 1 lookout: How that Financial Times writesthe iPhone manufacturer negotiates streaming rights.

Rights initially only for the USA

According to the report, one would like to take over the necessary licenses from the Disney subsidiary ESPN. At the moment it is apparently only about rights for the American market, although Apple usually always tries to acquire global streaming licenses.

The Liberty Media company is owner of the racing series in the USA. There it is hoped that the success of “F1” and other racing content such as the Netflix show “Drive to Survive” leads to the prices. Supposedly more and more younger people in the USA are interested in Formula 1, including increasingly women, it is said.

Younger fans: clear price increase

According to analysts, a Formula 1 license for the USA could be worth around $ 121 million a year. For comparison: Apple is supposed to target $ 300 million income with “F1”, but the film was also very expensive (more than $ 200 million). Formula 1 worldwide is even more valuable: According to Financial Times, sales for global media rights were $ 1.1 billion in 2024 – an increase of eight percent.

At Liberty Media you have not yet decided who you want to sell the rights. At the moment ESPN supposedly “only” pays $ 85 million. The rights holder operates his own streaming offers in parallel and asks fans directly to the cash register. Among other things, Apple had acquired rights to important games in the US baseball league MLB for its streaming service TV+, and subscriptions (with some free spins) for the soccer league MLS are also sold. In the meantime, Apple is also said to have been interested in the British Premier League, but did not offer global rights on offer.