Apple's bid for US F1 broadcast rights

Lost in news of Horner's firing, Apple has reportedly made a bid for US F1 broadcast rights, based on the success of the F1 movie. Earlier estimates of $185 US million have now gone down to ~$121 million. Currently, it's $85 million.
It kind of seems Tim Cook's limp wristed flag waving at Austin last year was a Liberty perk offered to Apple to get them interested.
Can this be a good thing if Apple is awarded the rights?

 

I don't know if it's good or bad for Apple to get the broadcast rights, but I do know that watching races on my Vision Pro with the third-party Lapz app is my current favorite way to watch a race.

https://www.lapz.io/

 

Nothing will kill interest in the sport faster than locking it behind a paywall. ESPN doesn't really count as a paywall (though it is) because sports-interested people already have it.

 

If F1 goes this route, I will just get F1 TV for about $85 per year.

 

F1 TV is better commentary than the US announcers offer, that's for sure.

 

Please God, not Apple...even ESPN would be better.

 

But but the US audience is worth so much lol. Thats not as large a price as some estimates that were referenced months ago..............

 

Gosh I hope that's not gonna happen. I have a "dumb" TV and zero interest in getting a TV connected to the internet. I pay enough already for my cable provider.

 

I've watched the Tour De France for years, way before it got big. I just enjoyed the human test of endurance and the scenery. I didn’t watch any other road races except the Olympics. TDF went partially behind a paywall a couple years ago, showing reruns the next day. They’re now fully on streaming, so no more watching by me. They’ve also disappeared from the news in the USA, barely an article a day on BBC. I wonder what the bike shops, merch suppliers and others in that industry feel like to have their biggest draw each year disappear.

If F1 goes that route, I’ll probably get F1 TV when I finally get rid of cable in a couple years. Not sure if I will after not being able to watch it for long enough to have gotten out of the habit.

 

Lance Armstrong made it big here in the U.S. until he got caught. He even admits it and used it to his advantage(getting caught). Nowadays, he anchors for the TDF. Go figure.

F1 is global and as long as DTS and now the F1 movie is out, it's not going to die. Liberty Media has squeezed 24 races in a season and they are going to milk it for all its worth.

 

There's an approximately half hour recap of the Tour daily on YouTube. Shows up mid-late afternoon.

 

I really hate the Apple NFL, NHL, and MLB games.

 

Thanks, hadn’t found that yet. I’ll check it out.

 

There's that.

Also the fact that a few races (Monaco, Montreal) are actually shown on one of the regular stations (CBS?) gives me hope that Liberty wants to make the sport accessible to everybody.

 

The races you mention on ABC in the US, are shown because ESPN owns ABC. If Apple gets the rights, they have no regular channel option.

 

They've certainly shown how accessible they want the sport to be with what they've done with ticket prices. I don't think Liberty would give a flip about who can or cannot watch it as long as their pockets are lined, especially with the numbers hinted at throughout this thread.

 

I didn't even know Apple was broadcasting NFL games. I knew Amazon took over Thursday night or something so I no longer watch that. I guess I'm also missing out on whatever Apple airs lol. I used to follow MotoGP closely, but then it got hard to find a channel to watch and went to something called BeIN Sports and I gave up and never watched it again. ESPN/ABC is the best setup for F1 in the US imo. If they get away from that they will kill their US viewers imo.

 

this is the first positive post I’ve read regarding the Vision Pro.

friend bought one and only uses it on plane rides across an ocean.

 

VR/AR headsets are clunky and expensive right now, and the Apple one is egregiously both. Headsets that are much cheaper and easier to use are coming, though. The main price driver is the displays and the market for small, high quality displays is a lot bigger than just headsets. Those prices will continue to fall.

Headsets are clunky and expensive right now. Long haul flights is a great use case and an environment where you're more willing to endure the hassles of wearing the Vision Pro. I use mine a lot in bed at night to watch movies without disturbing my wife. It's surprisingly a lot less disruptive than an iPad.

The Lapz F1 app is an amazing way to watch the race. It draws a little track diagram in real space on top of your coffee table or desk or whatever and you can watch the cars on that model track right in front of you.



Data all comes from a paid formula1.com account. They had it open for a public beta a few months ago, but then closed the door. I assume there's a conversation about licensing taking place, hopefully they'll reach an agreement and public release soon. I'm grandfathered in from the previous public beta and the app still gets regular updates.

If you have at least 13 minutes of interest in golf, MKBHD has a deep-dive video about pro golf tech and how we'll probably see a similarly transformational way of watching golf with all the new tech in that sport.

 

Holy cow. Never heard of that. Unreal.

 

So, if Apple does get the contract, where would you be able to watch the F1 races?

 

No

 

Presumably Liberty would ultimately make the decision, correct? As I understand it Liberty would have a big interest in keeping it on cable because of its own revenue stream from cable as opposed to streaming. If I have to subscribe to Apple TV to get F1 I’ll just sign up for the F1 streaming service although I really don’t like streaming. It’s just something else to complicate things as I’m not a big consumer of “entertainment.”

 

Fox Business is reporting the Apple offer is $150 million US per year.

 

on apple.tv