The 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship began last weekend on Apple TV with the FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2026. As the new exclusive U.S. home of Formula 1, Apple TV is the place to watch every Grand Prix live and on demand — including all practice, qualifying, and Sprint sessions, along with races — all season long.
Alex Weprin for The Hollywood Reports:
In a sign of strength for the streaming platform, Apple’s senior VP of services Eddy Cue tells The Hollywood Reporter that viewership for last week’s Australian Grand Prix was up year over year compared to the 2025 race, which aired on ESPN.
“The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start, with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations,” Cue says.
As is typical for Apple, the company declined to give any specific numbers, though last year’s Australian GP averaged 1.1 million viewers for ESPN. The Australian GP is something of an unusual race, given its late-night timeslot, but any ratings improvement is nonetheless an encouraging sign, especially with more U.S.-friendly races like Montreal and Miami coming up.
“Fans are loving the enhanced viewing experience, including Multiview, Podium View, driver cams, and the ability to watch Formula 1 in stunning 4K with Dolby Vision for the first time,” Cue says. “The AUS GP also coincided with the biggest week ever for the Apple Sports app since its launch. We’re just getting started and are incredibly excited about what lies ahead.”
MacDailyNews Take: As Apple TV’s Formula 1 coverage ramps up, the sport ranks relatively low in U.S. TV viewership compared to major domestic sports leagues, as its average live race audience is in the low millions, while top sports like NFL games dominate with tens of millions.
For context on average U.S. TV viewership (primarily live regular-season or equivalent event averages, based on recent 2024-2025 data from Nielsen and reports):
• NFL: By far the leader, with regular-season games averaging around 17-18 million viewers (some sources cite ~17.5 million per game in recent seasons). Individual games vary widely, but it’s the most-watched sport overall.
• NBA: Regular-season games average about 1.5-1.6 million viewers across networks (e.g., ~1.6 million in 2023-2024 reports; postseason higher).
• MLB: Regular-season averages are lower (often ~1-2 million for national broadcasts), but key events like playoffs average higher (e.g., League Championship Series pull in ~5 million).
• Formula 1: Averaged 1.3 million viewers per race in the 2025 season on ESPN networks (a record high for F1 in the U.S., up from ~1.1 million in 2024 and prior years). That placed it competitively with or slightly above NHL regular-season averages and close to NBA/MLB regular-season national broadcasts, but well below the big three (NFL, NBA, MLB overall popularity).
• NHL: Regular-season games average under 1 million (e.g., ~0.8-1 million on ESPN/ABC in recent data).
About one quarter (24%) of Americans follow Formula 1 based on multiple surveys.
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Unfortunately for Apple the Formula 1 authorities have revised the engine requirements starting this year so instead of an actual race it is now a green hybrid engine energy conservation race, therefore the viewers are extremely pissed off and viewership will be greatly reduced. They will probably loose their best drivers too when their contracts are up, some at the end of this year.