All Formula 1 races will stream on Apple TV thanks to a five-year partnership announced Friday.
“We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Formula 1 and offer Apple TV subscribers in the U.S. front-row access to one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sports on the planet,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services. “2026 marks a transformative new era for Formula 1, from new teams to new regulations and cars with the best drivers in the world, and we look forward to delivering premium and innovative fan-first coverage to our customers in a way that only Apple can.”
Start your streams: Apple scores F1 in the US
Formula 1, often called F1 or Grand Prix racing, is the highest class of international motorsport, featuring the fastest and most technologically advanced open-wheel cars in the world. F1 brings together elite teams, cutting-edge engineering, and top drivers to compete on circuits and city streets across the globe.
Apple TV will deliver comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, with all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix available to subscribers of the Apple TV service. There’s no additional fee or subscription required — just the standard $12.99 per month Apple TV subscription.
F1 TV Premium, F1’s own premier content offering, will continue to be available in the U.S. via an Apple TV subscription only. It will be free for those who subscribe to Apple TV.
For non-subscribers, select races and all practice sessions will be available for free in the Apple TV app throughout the course of the season.
The deal goes into effect in 2026. It reportedly will cost Apple about $140 million a year. ESPN had the F1 rights previously, and was paying only about $85 million annually.
Growing Formula 1 popularity in the US
The deal is partially a result of the huge success of Apple Original Films’ F1 The Movie, the highest-grossing sports movie of all time.
In the United States, F1 still trails rival motorsports (like NASCAR) in total viewership and cultural entrenchment. In recent seasons, F1 averaged about 1.1 million to 1.4 million viewers per race in the U.S. on ESPN/ABC. Regular NASCAR Cup Series races often see about 2 million to 3 million viewers per event or more, but interest in the sport is waning. So the NASCAR/F1 gap is narrowing, especially among younger viewers.
Apple gets to ‘own’ a sport
This isn’t the only sport Apple is involved in. It has a deal to stream MLS (with an extra fee), plus it broadcasts Friday Night Baseball during the regular season.
In a recent interview, Eddy Cue said, “MLS is closer to what we wanted to do, which is we’d like to own a sport end to end, so that we can offer customers what we do today, which is you don’t have to worry about blackouts, you don’t worry about how to watch, we can do picture-in-picture, we can do all kinds of things that every sports fan wants. I know what I want when I’m watching all these other sports.”
It now essentially has what Cue wants with F1.
