F1 executives optimistic about Apple deal despite limited data

• Apple's Eddie Cue said in May that viewership for the first three races was "way up" versus last year's figures on ESPN. In June, it made the Austrian Grand Prix free for all U.S. viewers.

Reality check: The media industry has struggled to find a unified way to measure the success of live sporting events on subscription streaming platforms.

• Traditional viewership metrics don't capture data that matters to leagues looking to grow, such as viewership abroad and engagement with other fan content, like F1's alternative race broadcasts for kids.

Zoom in: The closest proxy to Apple's F1 deal is its 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement to exclusively stream Major League Soccer matches globally.

• While MLS commissioner Don Garber has touted the partnership as a success, he has conceded that a lack of transparency around viewership metrics and data makes it hard to independently assess.

Zoom out: F1 executives have conviction that the Apple deal is good for the sport, despite having fewer data points to prove it right now.

• "I think what Apple will bring to the broader fandom is the fact that they've got all their platforms — all the opportunities showing up in a fan's world, across their music, across news — in a way that's never been done before, and we know that fandom doesn't live in a silo," McLaren Racing chief marketing officer Louise McEwen said at an Axios House event during Cannes Lions.
• Apple's multiplatform experience is important to McLaren because "fans always want to be connected, but they're definitely not sitting down and watching 90 minutes of linear TV. As much as we'd like them to watch the race ... it's not that simple," she said.
• Former Manchester United and Chelsea football clubs CEO Peter Kenyon, now board advisor to the Atlassian Williams F1 team, said he's excited about the Apple deal because of its potential to reach more women fans.
• "I think all the indications are that [women are] our next generation of F1 fans, and I think it's not a five-year play," he told me and The Race's founder and editor-in-chief Darren Cox in an interview during Cannes Lions. "If we look after them right now, I think the sport's in a really good shape."

By the numbers: For F1, which briefly let ESPN distribute its races for free to build its U.S. audience, a bigger audience means it can command higher fees.

• Apple TV's F1 deal is worth about $140 million–$160 million per year, notably higher than the roughly $90 million per year ESPN paid under its last F1 contract that concluded in 2025.

Between the lines: Like Netflix, Apple TV has focused its live sports ambitions on airing select premium events it hopes will expand its audiences.

• It struck its first major live sports deal in 2022 with Major League Baseball to air the league's Friday Night Baseball doubleheader. Soon after, it signed the MLS deal.

The big picture: Apple's deal would not have been possible if it weren't for several key players that laid the groundwork for the league's popularity.

• Liberty Media acquired F1 in 2017 and helped drive its commercial transformation through a series of strategic deals, including the U.S. distribution deal with ESPN from 2018 to 2025. F1 saw a record 1.3 million viewers on average per race in the U.S. last year.
• Liberty pitched "Drive to Survive" to Netflix, ultimately helping to introduce millions of new fans, particularly younger audiences and women to F1.
• It also relaxed social media rules that previously banned filming by anyone inside the paddock beyond broadcasters with TV deals or F1 management.