US Broadcast Rights Deal Done

Formula 1 has its US broadcast partner for the next two years, and it’s a familiar face: ESPN. The Disney-owned sports broadcaster reportedly put in a bid between $75 and $90 million, a significant increase over the $5 million they currently pay.

ESPN will still broadcast some races on ABC and also has the option to stream some races exclusively to ESPN+.

It’s was also reported that Amazon’s bid was over $100 million per year with some races being distributed to linear networks.

Ultimately, the choice for Formula 1 and Liberty Media was to go with who that got them here, keep it familiar for the viewer while honoring the work ESPN has put into growing F1 stateside.

Implications

The deal itself goes through the 2025 season, which is just before the series goes through another set of regulation changes. It’s also just before we could see one of either an American team (Andretti) or even the Volkswagen Group (Audi & Porsche) could join the fold.

New American money has come in (Google, Salesforce, Oracle, Zoom, Qualcomm) but there’s more work to be done on that front. Liberty would be doing itself a disservice by selling the rights too far into the future with much more potential, especially if we see an American driver on the grid.

If this is my playbook to run, I’m would spend the next two years bringing on every potential US partner possible, ensure that a formidable American team and driver get on the grid, and continue building the digital and social media communities. Doing all this in preparation for a 2025 negotiation puts Formula 1 firmly in the drivers seat to capture a massive deal similar to the Apple x MLS partnership.