In an interesting update for fans of Formula One, the highest class of open-wheel single-seater international car racing, the high-profile sports event would continue to be telecast on the Disney-owned sports channel ESPN for three more years, as per a report by Sports Business Journal.
As per the latest confirmed yet unsigned deal, ESPN will showcase Formula 1 races until the year 2025 in the US. The deal has been renewed for around a whopping $75 to $90 million dollars per year. Currently, ESPN is shelling out a much lower figure of around $5 million per year through a 3-year deal that was signed in 2019.
And in doing that, ESPN has ostensibly beaten OTT giants like Netflix and Amazon, who were also vying for media rights for F1, owned by Liberty Media. Interestingly, Amazon had reportedly offered around $100 million dollars per annum for F1 media rights, which is significantly more than the finalized deal with ESPN.
So, the question is: why were F1 rights not given to Amazon despite a higher bid? It seems that Formula One might not be prepared to join the OTT bandwagon and to live stream its races on a dedicated streaming platform yet. However, the latest deal would allow ESPN’s streaming arm ESPN+ to stream a small but unquantified number of F1 races / race supported content / free practices exclusively on the ESPN+ OTT platform. ESPN+ is regarded as an add-on to ESPN’s core linear television network.
In the past few years, the popularity and craze for Formula One racing has witnessed a surge. This also became evident after the Netflix docuseries ‘Formula One: Drive to Survive’ became a phenomenal success amongst OTT audiences worldwide. The series is based on the highly competitive world of Formula One racing which features a behind the scenes look at the stakeholders of the high-octane game – drivers, managers, and team owners. But it still remains to be seen when and where we can stream live F1 races on a popular OTT platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Perhaps that could change from 2025.
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