Apple’s Real F1 Ambition Goes Beyond Streaming
The tech giant isn’t chasing racing broadcasts alone. It’s building a global sports ecosystem
At the end of the 2022 United States Grand Prix, a grey-haired man waved the chequered flag from the gantry overlooking the Austin racetrack. He was mocked on social media for his lack of enthusiasm. We didn’t realise it at the time, but this was the start of something big.
The ordinary-looking fella who waved the flag was Tim Cook — one of the most famous and successful CEOs of all time — but the business he runs, Apple Inc., is no ordinary company.
In 2025, Apple’s annual revenue topped over $400billion a year, more than Meta, Netflix, and Intel combined. And under’s Cook’s watch it became the first firm ever to attain a $1trillion market cap. In 2025, it hit $4trillion. Today, it’s the most valuable company in the world.
The issue of global F1 rights
In the sporting arena, this is the year Apple took over the streaming rights to show Formula 1 in the United States in a new five-year deal, and executives at the company have discussed the possibility of global rights in the future.
With this in mind, there was surprise last week when Sky grasped the opportunity to extend its TV rights to exclusively broadcast Formula 1 for an additional five years in the UK until 2034, and in Italy until 2032. In the case of the UK and Ireland, there were still two and a half years left to run on its original deal. So why did it pay another rumoured $250million a year — or $1.25billion in total — well in advance of the contract ending?
Perhaps it felt the need to act before Apple’s influence over Formula 1 grew into a dominant position, or maybe F1 simply couldn’t refuse the lucrative appeal of another major injection of cash?
Since Sky secured exclusive rights in the UK, F1 has enjoyed the financial windfall on offer. Back when it agreed its original deal, from 2019 to 2024, the BBC reported that the £1.2billion agreement amounted to approximately 11% of F1’s turnover at the time — and by far its largest sponsor.
Let’s not forget, Formula 1 became incredibly profitable thanks to the negotiations that former ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone deployed. He saw the value of selling the same product over and over again to different markets. At a time when TV coverage was pre-digital, he sold coverage of F1 to as many territories as possible, bringing in enormous revenues for very little outlay. He could even increase the price by getting rival regional TV stations to outbid one another.
The change in viewing habits
The television landscape has changed dramatically since then. Not only have younger generations moved away from traditional linear TV, but improved internet speeds have now made streaming a viable alternative. Media giants such as Netflix, Amazon, and Disney are only becoming more powerful based on their global subscriber numbers, with Netflix leading the way with more than 300million accounts.
Mergers and acquisitions are also continuing to consolidate the landscape. Recently Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. has meant former products such as Eurosport and current TNT Sports are now part of HBO Max. Also in the UK, Sky is also looking to merge with part of ITV’s business.
Look at Disney/ESPN and DAZN/Foxtel and the trend is happening globally. Formula 1 may eventually lose individual in-market deals anyway, with one or two media giants snapping up rights for entire regions.
The core of Apple’s motives
Rather than being slighted by F1’s decision to extend with Sky, Apple will be unfazed — it even allows the option for viewers to take Sky’s commentary. There is much more at stake for the Cupertino tech giant than just a streaming channel.
One of the company’s strategies is to connect its users into its wider ecosystem and services: Apple News, Apple Maps, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+. As just one small example, ahead of Montreal this weekend, the company has introduced a brand-new interactive experience of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve within its Apple Maps app.
Today, 20% of the world’s population uses Apple products, equivalent to 2.2billion people. In David Pogue’s new book, ‘Apple The First 50 Years’, he writes that the company sells 220million iPhones a year, bringing in $1million every 90 seconds. Even if a fraction of that population taps into its services, the returns will be significant.
That’s why sports, TV and movies are at the core of its services business, separate from its software and hardware division.
Bringing sports fans into the ecosystem
But Apple also understands passion and loyalty. People who purchase its products are often repeat buyers as they are enthused about their devices. And sports, by their very nature, taps into a similar fixation.
Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange in New York last autumn, SVP of Apple Services Eddy Cue referenced the fandom element of sports, but also talked about his frustration with a fragmented sports broadcast landscape.
“It’s never been a better time for a sports fan, because every sport in the world is available in some fashion to watch,” said Cue. “The problem is, it can be very hard to find. You have to sign up for multiple subscriptions, and if you’re travelling, it becomes almost impossible. If I want to watch an NFL game in London, I have to find a way to subscribe. But then I don’t have a UK credit card or address. So how do you fix that?”
Apple TV was only launched in 2019. It moved into the live sports arena in 2020 with MLB’s Friday Night Baseball, a weekly double-header under a seven-year deal. In 2023, Apple announced it had secured the global streaming rights to Major League Soccer.
It was a 10-year deal estimated at $2.5billion. If you want to watch Lionel Messi, you need an Apple subscription. Guess what? You get a free, three-month trial if you buy an iPhone.
The impact of the big screen
The buzz around ABX Miami earlier this month was not focused on Apple’s global streaming rights, but on a sequel to the F1 movie. From an outlay of $300million, last year’s film generated more than double that at the box office, becoming Apple Original Films’ most successful release so far.
If you were looking at global audiences, right now, investing in a sequel would be more beneficial than pursuing streaming rights. So maybe that’s the play for now. It is after all still the new kid on the block, only fives races into its first season.
There’s one final consideration for Apple. Despite travelling to China with President Trump in the past week, Tim Cook is stepping down. His role will be taken by John Ternus on 1 September. Why is this important? Well, if he ever waves the chequered flag at a grand prix, it will likely be with significantly more enthusiasm. He will certainly align Apple closer to F1.
Speaking to Reuters at ABX Miami, Eddy Cue said: “John drives a Porsche and does amateur racing. He would actually be here this weekend but he’s at Laguna Seca,” (where the IMSA Penske Porsche 963s were racing in a special 50th anniversary retro Apple rainbow livery).
“So rest assured if anything he’s going to be at more races than Tim,” continued Cue. “He’s a huge, huge fan of F1, so you’ll continue to see full support from him. When we do something, we don’t do things halfway. The things that we do, we go all in. So we believe without a doubt that this is going to make a huge difference in what we can do to help motorsports.”
For now, F1 is committing with its partnership with Sky, but make no mistake, Apple’s ambitions are far bigger than just showing races.