Apple is poised to secure streaming rights for F1 races in America starting next year, outbidding ESPN, which currently holds the rights, with a significantly higher offer.
Peter Kafka for Business Insider:
Apple had a box-office hit with “F1,” the car-racing movie. Now it looks like it’s going to double up on the sport, with a likely deal to stream Formula 1 races.
The tech company appears to be the leading bidder for the US rights to show F1 races. The rights are currently held by Disney’s ESPN.
Apple has submitted a bid worth at least $150 million a year to stream the races starting in 2026. And ESPN isn’t going to try to match or beat that, according to a source familiar with negotiations.
So barring a last-minute change, it looks like Apple, which already has deals to stream some pro baseball games, and all of Major League Soccer’s games, will have a third sports streaming offering next year.
MacDailyNews Take: What a genius idea.
Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV, buying rights to Premier League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatloads of cash. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
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“What a genius idea” says MDN…all from the guy you constantly bitch about being past his sell by date ???
hugh,
MDN called it a “genius idea” because they said Apple should do this over a decade ago, bless your heart.
Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV, buying rights to Premier League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatloads of cash. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
I am cautiously concerned. I’m in the US. This year I subscribed to the F1 streaming channel. I discovered just how bad the video and audio quality is on ESPN from my cable service provider. If Apple TV can match that quality, I will be happy. But if I lose my current streaming service for one of lesser quality video and audio, I am going to be very unhappy.