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 Premiere 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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