Liberty Media CEO says he hopes F1's Apple TV rights deal outlasts its 2030 end date
Liberty Media CEO Derek Chang, speaking at an Axios event near the Austin Grand Prix, said he would like F1's media rights agreement with Apple to continue past its scheduled 2030 expiration. Chang declined to engage with a recent third-party analysis suggesting that F1 audience numbers have fallen in the first year of the Apple arrangement relative to the circuit's previous deal with ESPN, saying F1 treats overall engagement rather than traditional broadcast viewership as its primary measure of success. He noted that roughly 60 percent of F1's hundreds of millions of fans interact with the sport's content on a daily basis, even though races are not held every day. According to the report, Apple is paying approximately $140 million per year for the rights, compared to the roughly $90 million ESPN had been paying.
Now, we would love every person associated with F1 to follow F1 24 hours a day, go to every race or watch every race on TV, but we know that's not going to happen, right?
Why it matters
For brands: Companies sponsoring F1 properties need to understand whether Apple's platform delivers comparable or growing audience exposure relative to the prior linear-TV arrangement.
For media: Broadcasters and streaming platforms can observe how F1 and Liberty Media are reframing engagement metrics as rights holders shift away from traditional viewership measurements.
For athletes: F1 drivers and teams depend on the reach and revenue of the sport's broadcast deal, which shapes sponsorship value and overall commercial income.
Read the full story at Yahoo Sports
Sources
- Yahoo Sports: Formula 1 boss wants Apple TV partnership to extend ‘hopefully beyond’ 2030 expiration
- Awful Announcing · Drew Lerner: Formula 1 boss wants Apple TV partnership to extend ‘hopefully beyond’ 2030 expiration