ESPN has reportedly held on to Formula 1 media rights in the U.S. for the next three years, beating out Amazon and Comcast for the increasingly popular racing content, according to Sports Business Journal.
SBJ on Friday said F1 hasn’t yet signed a renewal contract with ESPN for the three-year deal but informed the two other bidders their offers weren’t going to be accepted. While nabbing the rights, ESPN is doling out significantly more than it currently pays, sources told SBJ. The outlet said annual amount for rights is around $75 million - $90 million, compared to the current $5 million per year for ESPN pays for F1 under a 3-year $15 million deal inked in 2019.
Officials at ESPN had previously confirmed they were holding talks with F1 to extend a deal and had entered a bid of around $70 million.
Netflix earlier this month was pegged as a party interested in obtaining F1 rights, which would’ve been a first for the SVOD giant in terms of bringing live sports content to the platform. However, the streamer’s bid was apparently not in the ballpark that others offered. SBJ cited sources as saying Amazon actually put in a higher offer than ESPN of around $100 million, while Comcast’s was similar to ESPN. The report noted F1 executives were not prepared to put all of the races on streaming as of yet.
Comcast is an F1 partner in international markets through its Sky subsidiary, with Sky Sports serving as the exclusive home of live F1 in the U.K. and Ireland.
With ESPN keeping control of the rights, most races will be on linear TV channels of ABC or ESPN while a small but undisclosed number of races will be available exclusively on ESPN+, according to the report.
Reached by Fierce, ESPN declined to comment on the SBJ report.
The news comes as interest in F1 racing-related content has been revving up in the streaming world alongside a growing fan base. A Morning Consult survey in March found the share of U.S. adults who identified as an “avid” or “casual” fan of F1 increased from 21% in 2020 to 28% in 2022. That put it on par with IndyCar in terms of popularity, which the firm called “an impressive feat given that F1 has held only one race per season in the United States (prior to this season’s addition of the Miami Grand Prix) and lacks any America-born drivers.”
Content, specifically Netflix’s “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” docuseries, which features behind-the-scenes access to race teams, notably helped fuel some of that fandom. According to the survey, more than half (53%) of self-identified F1 fans said the Netflix series played a role in their becoming a fan of the sport, with 30% citing the show as a major reason and 23% saying it was a minor reason.
Season four of the docuseries premiered earlier this year and spent two weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 for TV series, reaching the top 10 in 56 countries.
It also follows a banner year for F1 viewership in the U.S., where the 2021 season was the most-watched ever in the U.S. with an average of 934,000 viewers across ESPN, ABC and ESPN2. The 2022 season is shaping up to be big as well, averaging 1.4 million viewers per race through the first five races – 53% larger than the average of for the first five races of the record 2021 season.
Others are also getting into the Formula 1 content fray. That includes Hulu (majority owned by Disney, who also jointly owns ESPN alongside Hearst Communications), which according to The Hollywood Reporter has teamed with F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo to create a scripted series that’s currently in early development stages and set in the Formula 1 racing world. The outlet also pointed to Apple, which recently landed a forthcoming Formula 1 racing movie from “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, with F1 world-champion Lewis Hamilton in the mix.