The Future of F1 Broadcasting in the U.S. Post-ESPN

[FW17]

Prices of F1 tickets and TV subscription will be the same soon.

[continuum16]

F1TV has become pretty good after the first year but I cant stand their commentary team vs. the Sky commentary. That is the biggest drawback to F1TV

Ironically I have the exact opposite opinion. It's probably a question of who I am used to at this point since I watched the Sky broadcast many times before F1TV and found it fine, but now I find it unbearable. F1TV used to (maybe they still do idk; I never select it) let you switch between the Sky/world feed and the F1TV commentary.

To be honest more than the commentary team I just need there to be a commercial-free option. If that is F1TV, fine. If it is someone else, fine. In America you are just expected to miss your live sporting event to be advertised to regardless of what is happening in said event. It's BS and I [redacted by MBS] hate it. It's so refreshing to just have ~90 minutes of uninterrupted racing and I thing having to give that up would genuinely make me not watch anymore.

[Biffle]

F1TV has become pretty good after the first year but I cant stand their commentary team vs. the Sky commentary. That is the biggest drawback to F1TV

Do you get the "international" feed with F1TV? (which is the Sky Crew) I have the option of switching back & forth on mine (between Croft & the others)

[Macklaren]

F1TV has become pretty good after the first year but I cant stand their commentary team vs. the Sky commentary. That is the biggest drawback to F1TV

Do you get the "international" feed with F1TV? (which is the Sky Crew) I have the option of switching back & forth on mine (between Croft & the others)

I know in the first year, I had that option along with the ability to do picture in picture so that I could watch a driver feed and main feed at the same time with blended commentary. I think that went away in year 2. I'm in the US. someone please correct me if there is still a way to do this

[rbirules]

F1TV has become pretty good after the first year but I cant stand their commentary team vs. the Sky commentary. That is the biggest drawback to F1TV

Ironically I have the exact opposite opinion. It's probably a question of who I am used to at this point since I watched the Sky broadcast many times before F1TV and found it fine, but now I find it unbearable. F1TV used to (maybe they still do idk; I never select it) let you switch between the Sky/world feed and the F1TV commentary.

To be honest more than the commentary team I just need there to be a commercial-free option. If that is F1TV, fine. If it is someone else, fine. In America you are just expected to miss your live sporting event to be advertised to regardless of what is happening in said event. It's BS and I [redacted by MBS] hate it. It's so refreshing to just have ~90 minutes of uninterrupted racing and I thing having to give that up would genuinely make me not watch anymore.

What live events are being interrupted by commercials in America? As a fellow American I'm drawing a blank. The four major sports in the US (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) all have breaks in play to accommodate commercials. F1 shown on ESPN (or ABC for a handful of races) are all shown commercial free live. I guess golf has commercials but you are hopping around from pairing to pairing for 4-5 hours of coverage (for majors at least). Soccer matches are shown without commercials. I guess some live endurance sports (cycling, marathons, Olympic distance races) sometimes have commercial breaks.

I admittedly don't watch other forms of motor sports in the US, so maybe Indycar or Nascar has commercial breaks that you are referring to.

[continuum16]

F1TV has become pretty good after the first year but I cant stand their commentary team vs. the Sky commentary. That is the biggest drawback to F1TV

Ironically I have the exact opposite opinion. It's probably a question of who I am used to at this point since I watched the Sky broadcast many times before F1TV and found it fine, but now I find it unbearable. F1TV used to (maybe they still do idk; I never select it) let you switch between the Sky/world feed and the F1TV commentary.

To be honest more than the commentary team I just need there to be a commercial-free option. If that is F1TV, fine. If it is someone else, fine. In America you are just expected to miss your live sporting event to be advertised to regardless of what is happening in said event. It's BS and I [redacted by MBS] hate it. It's so refreshing to just have ~90 minutes of uninterrupted racing and I thing having to give that up would genuinely make me not watch anymore.

What live events are being interrupted by commercials in America? As a fellow American I'm drawing a blank. The four major sports in the US (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) all have breaks in play to accommodate commercials. F1 shown on ESPN (or ABC for a handful of races) are all shown commercial free live. I guess golf has commercials but you are hopping around from pairing to pairing for 4-5 hours of coverage (for majors at least). Soccer matches are shown without commercials. I guess some live endurance sports (cycling, marathons, Olympic distance races) sometimes have commercial breaks.

I admittedly don't watch other forms of motor sports in the US, so maybe Indycar or Nascar has commercial breaks that you are referring to.

Indycar and NASCAR do have commercials which is part of it. NASCAr especially has a terrible habit of cutting to commercial at inopportune times. But my point is more general. I want to highlight something you said:

The four major sports in the US (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) all have breaks in play to accommodate commercials.

That is my point. We are so conditioned to accept these drawn-out start-stop sporting events that it is the norm to us. They literally stop the competition to show commercials. Maybe it's just me but at a 30,000 foot view that seems so ass-backwards.

At least in racing, if you go to the track you can see the whole thing uninterrupted. Go to an NFL game and there are at least 30-60 minutes where you are just sitting there watching nothing but field workers and people standing around. I cannot imagine European or Latin American people accepting to miss 15-20 minutes of a 90 minute football (soccer) match to watch advertisements.

[rbirules]

Ironically I have the exact opposite opinion. It's probably a question of who I am used to at this point since I watched the Sky broadcast many times before F1TV and found it fine, but now I find it unbearable. F1TV used to (maybe they still do idk; I never select it) let you switch between the Sky/world feed and the F1TV commentary.

To be honest more than the commentary team I just need there to be a commercial-free option. If that is F1TV, fine. If it is someone else, fine. In America you are just expected to miss your live sporting event to be advertised to regardless of what is happening in said event. It's BS and I [redacted by MBS] hate it. It's so refreshing to just have ~90 minutes of uninterrupted racing and I thing having to give that up would genuinely make me not watch anymore.

What live events are being interrupted by commercials in America? As a fellow American I'm drawing a blank. The four major sports in the US (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) all have breaks in play to accommodate commercials. F1 shown on ESPN (or ABC for a handful of races) are all shown commercial free live. I guess golf has commercials but you are hopping around from pairing to pairing for 4-5 hours of coverage (for majors at least). Soccer matches are shown without commercials. I guess some live endurance sports (cycling, marathons, Olympic distance races) sometimes have commercial breaks.

I admittedly don't watch other forms of motor sports in the US, so maybe Indycar or Nascar has commercial breaks that you are referring to.

Indycar and NASCAR do have commercials which is part of it. NASCAr especially has a terrible habit of cutting to commercial at inopportune times. But my point is more general. I want to highlight something you said:

The four major sports in the US (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) all have breaks in play to accommodate commercials.

That is my point. We are so conditioned to accept these drawn-out start-stop sporting events that it is the norm to us. They literally stop the competition to show commercials. Maybe it's just me but at a 30,000 foot view that seems so ass-backwards.

At least in racing, if you go to the track you can see the whole thing uninterrupted. Go to an NFL game and there are at least 30-60 minutes where you are just sitting there watching nothing but field workers and people standing around. I cannot imagine European or Latin American people accepting to miss 15-20 minutes of a 90 minute football (soccer) match to watch advertisements.

Fair point on Indycar and NASCAR, I don't watch them but I assumed this was the case.

It's hard to compare across sports. Soccer has a running clock so commercial breaks don't make sense during game play (15 second commercial as we wait for a corner kick?).

Baseball the teams come off the field and the other team comes on the field and warms up briefly between half innings. They have reduced this time in recent years and I feel that's perfectly fine for a commercial break. Hockey and basketball have scheduled commercial breaks at various points in a quarter/period, upon the next stoppage in play, and it's really not that obtrusive watching live or on TV, IMO.

I agree commercial breaks in football are awful if you are at the game in person, especially around TDs and the ensuing kickoff, there is little to no action for several minutes. Most of the major sports in America have more stopping and starting in the game action than soccer, and obviously there is none in a F1 race unless there is a red flag, but that doesn't mean you have to cram commercials into as many of those breaks as possible, elongating them in the process.

[zeph]

Just got this email. F1TV in USA is done. I already have Apple One so for me it will effectively save me $85/yr, but for those of us who have not bought into the Apple ecosystem this really sucks.

Hi There,

As a F1® TV Pro or Premium customer, we’re letting you know that we will be phasing out direct subscriptions to F1® TV Pro and Premium.

Key Changes to note:

To keep watching F1® through to the end of the 2025 season, F1® TV Pro and Premium annual and monthly subscriptions and renewals are available until the following dates:
Monthly Subscriptions: From December 8th this year, fans in the US will no longer be able to purchase a new F1® TV Pro or Premium monthly subscription and existing subscriptions will no longer renew.
Annual Subscriptions: From October 17th this year, fans in the US will no longer be able to purchase a new F1® TV Pro or Premium annual subscription.
From November 17th this year, existing F1® TV Pro or Premium annual subscriptions will no longer renew.

Your subscription

Considering these changes, this is what it means for your F1® TV Pro annual subscription.

Currently your annual subscription is up for renewal on 16 October 2025. The next payment for your annual subscription will then be made on the above date, and your subscription will automatically renew for one more year (expiring on 16 October 2026) unless cancelled. Following such date, it will not auto-renew any more.

Change your subscription

If you decide to cancel your subscription after 16th November 2025, you will not be able to create or renew another annual subscription after that.

F1® TV Pro and Premium Monthly subscriptions are available for purchase and renewals until the 7th December 2025.

2026 Onwards

From January 2026, our new Formula 1 broadcast partner in the US will be Apple TV. Next season F1® TV Premium will continue to be available in the U.S., included with an Apple TV subscription only. You will still be able to purchase F1® TV Access, which remains available in the US.

Thank you.

The F1® TV Team

[Chuckjr]

It is utter bollocks they are doing this. I’ve not missed more than a handful of races in 40+ years watching, but this Apple TV nonsense is just not going to work in the USA. SMH.

[Mansell89]

I feel we’re about to see the piecemeal breakup of sporting rights across several streaming platforms unfortunately.

It’s going to be very different for those of us who grew up with one subscription platform for all the sports we wanted.

Not sure how this Apple model will work. My only hope is that it streams at the highest picture quality possible- overall I’d say Apple is the best picture quality of all the streaming platforms so hopefully they do sport justice.

I’m not confident based on what I saw Discovery+ do with TNT Sport here in the UK (when it replaced BT Sport)- they turned it from the best picture quality on the market to bang average IMO.

All we can do is wait and see.

[Badger]

Just got this email. F1TV in USA is done. I already have Apple One so for me it will effectively save me $85/yr, but for those of us who have not bought into the Apple ecosystem this really sucks.

Hi There,

As a F1® TV Pro or Premium customer, we’re letting you know that we will be phasing out direct subscriptions to F1® TV Pro and Premium.

Key Changes to note:

To keep watching F1® through to the end of the 2025 season, F1® TV Pro and Premium annual and monthly subscriptions and renewals are available until the following dates:
Monthly Subscriptions: From December 8th this year, fans in the US will no longer be able to purchase a new F1® TV Pro or Premium monthly subscription and existing subscriptions will no longer renew.
Annual Subscriptions: From October 17th this year, fans in the US will no longer be able to purchase a new F1® TV Pro or Premium annual subscription.
From November 17th this year, existing F1® TV Pro or Premium annual subscriptions will no longer renew.

Your subscription

Considering these changes, this is what it means for your F1® TV Pro annual subscription.

Currently your annual subscription is up for renewal on 16 October 2025. The next payment for your annual subscription will then be made on the above date, and your subscription will automatically renew for one more year (expiring on 16 October 2026) unless cancelled. Following such date, it will not auto-renew any more.

Change your subscription

If you decide to cancel your subscription after 16th November 2025, you will not be able to create or renew another annual subscription after that.

F1® TV Pro and Premium Monthly subscriptions are available for purchase and renewals until the 7th December 2025.

2026 Onwards

From January 2026, our new Formula 1 broadcast partner in the US will be Apple TV. Next season F1® TV Premium will continue to be available in the U.S., included with an Apple TV subscription only. You will still be able to purchase F1® TV Access, which remains available in the US.

Thank you.

The F1® TV Team

What does this have to do with the “Apple ecosystem” really though?

Apple TV is like Netflix, HBO or any other streaming app. You don’t need an Apple device to use it, it works on anything. What you have here is basically an offer to get F1TV Premium and Apple TV together for like $100 annual subscription. It’s a great deal compared to the absolute sh** that is being peddled in Europe. And if I’m not mistaken it’s cheaper than what it previously cost on ESPN+.

It is utter bollocks they are doing this. I’ve not missed more than a handful of races in 40+ years watching, but this Apple TV nonsense is just not going to work in the USA. SMH.

Cc

[zeph]

For those that don't have Apple TV, it will be another subscription to manage. Granted, you no longer have to subscribe to F1TV Pro, but the bill does go up from $85/yr to $155/yr.

I do have Apple One because I was already using Apple Music and iCloud storage, so it made sense for me to pay like $3 more and get the rest of the bundle as well. Of course, bill creep has me at $25.99/mo now, $7 more than what I paid initially.
But I hardly watch any of the shows. Their stuff just isn't that compelling to me. Oh, and I hate what they did to Foundation.
I keep thinking I should cancel and just go back to separate subs for Music and storage, but with F1 incoming now, I guess I'm on the hook forever.

[SB15]

It is utter bollocks they are doing this. I’ve not missed more than a handful of races in 40+ years watching, but this Apple TV nonsense is just not going to work in the USA. SMH.

America is doing its absolute damnest to price out the majority of it's citizens. Which is just asinine that we come to a point to be this money hungry.

[Rodak]

For those that don't have Apple TV, it will be another subscription to manage. Granted, you no longer have to subscribe to F1TV Pro, but the bill does go up from $85/yr to $155/yr.

I do have Apple One because I was already using Apple Music and iCloud storage, so it made sense for me to pay like $3 more and get the rest of the bundle as well. Of course, bill creep has me at $25.99/mo now, $7 more than what I paid initially.
But I hardly watch any of the shows. Their stuff just isn't that compelling to me. Oh, and I hate what they did to Foundation.
I keep thinking I should cancel and just go back to separate subs for Music and storage, but with F1 incoming now, I guess I'm on the hook forever.

It looks like you get 5 races with Apple TV. To get all the races you need an Apple+ subscription which comes with F1TV Premium at a cost of $20/month. F1TV Pro will no longer be available, so it's going to cost $240/year to watch F1.

This is too bad, I've had F1TV Pro ($89 USD this year) for years and really enjoy it, especially Palmer's commentary and post race analyses. I will not subscribe to Apple, so I guess here's one strong long term fan gone. I'm sure they've run the numbers and really don't care about people like me as they'll make more money this way. Sad.

[Badger]

For those that don't have Apple TV, it will be another subscription to manage. Granted, you no longer have to subscribe to F1TV Pro, but the bill does go up from $85/yr to $155/yr.

I do have Apple One because I was already using Apple Music and iCloud storage, so it made sense for me to pay like $3 more and get the rest of the bundle as well. Of course, bill creep has me at $25.99/mo now, $7 more than what I paid initially.
But I hardly watch any of the shows. Their stuff just isn't that compelling to me. Oh, and I hate what they did to Foundation.
I keep thinking I should cancel and just go back to separate subs for Music and storage, but with F1 incoming now, I guess I'm on the hook forever.

You lose one subscription and add another, that leaves you with exactly the same amount of subscriptions to manage.

You’re just adding the monthly rates together, I’m assuming they offer an annual bundle at a discount. I thought they had it at $100 before. Worst case you can just subscribe monthly for the 9 months of the season they race and cancel to save yourself 3 months of payments. Brings your bill down to $115.