For the last seven years, US F1 fans had a great deal. ESPN carried every Formula 1 race, most on ABC or ESPN main channels, some on ESPN2. With a cable subscription or a $30 antenna plus a basic live TV service, you could watch every race for whatever you were already paying. ESPN paid roughly $85 million a year for the rights and gave them away as part of the bundle.
That deal ended at the end of the 2025 season. For 2026 and the next five seasons, Apple TV has the exclusive US rights to Formula 1. Apple paid roughly $700 million over five years, or $140 million a year — nearly double what ESPN was paying. The deal was finalized in October 2025.
If you are an F1 fan in the US, here is what you need to know.
What Apple gets
Every race weekend in 2026 onward. Practice sessions, qualifying, sprints, the main Grand Prix, and the post-race coverage. Plus select free races for non-subscribers as a promotional pull. The Apple production is reportedly built around Apple's own broadcast crew with significant new investment in the on-air presentation — closer to what Apple did with MLS Season Pass and the F1 movie production.
What it costs
Apple TV is $12.99 a month for the standard subscription. That subscription gives you every F1 race, plus Apple TV+ originals (Severance, Slow Horses, Ted Lasso reruns, The Morning Show), plus MLS Friday Night Baseball, plus the rest of Apple's sports lineup.
If you are already an Apple TV subscriber, F1 is included at no extra cost. If you are not, $12.99 a month gets you the full season — cheaper than what a single race used to cost on F1 TV Pro.
F1 TV Pro — the international F1 streaming app — still exists at $129.99 a year. It carries multiple camera angles, team radio, and onboard feeds. For hardcore fans, F1 TV Pro on top of Apple TV is a real stack. For casual fans, the Apple TV broadcast alone is plenty.
What you lose
The big change is the disappearance of free over-the-air F1 weekends. Under the ESPN deal, several races each season ran on ABC, which meant a $30 antenna got you those races for free. That option is gone in 2026. Every race now requires an Apple TV subscription.
For households that were paying $80-plus a month for a live TV bundle just to get ESPN for F1, the move actually saves money — $12.99 Apple TV is much cheaper than $82.99 YouTube TV. For households that were watching F1 entirely on ABC over the air, the move costs $12.99 a month they were not paying before.
The setup — what device to use
Apple TV runs on virtually every modern streaming platform. Apple TV 4K (the device, $129 to $149) is the cleanest experience. Roku, Fire TV, Google TV, Chromecast, Samsung Tizen TVs, LG webOS TVs, and Vizio SmartCast TVs all run the Apple TV app natively. The iPhone and iPad have it built in.
For F1 specifically, the broadcast is being produced in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos audio. To get the full picture, you want a 4K TV, a 4K-capable streaming device, and an internet connection that can sustain 25 to 50 Mbps for sports streaming. Most US broadband connections handle that without a problem; if yours struggles, the Wi-Fi is usually the bottleneck rather than the ISP plan.
The lean F1 stack for 2026
$12.99 a month Apple TV gets you every race. That's it. No live TV service, no antenna, no cable bundle needed.
If you already subscribe to Apple TV for other reasons — the original shows, Friday Night Baseball, MLS Season Pass — F1 is a free add. If F1 is the only reason you would subscribe, $12.99 across a 24-race season is roughly 54 cents per race. That's a bargain.
What about The Drive To Survive and the F1 movie?
Netflix still has Drive to Survive as an annual docuseries. The next season drops in early 2026 covering the 2025 season. Drive to Survive is a Netflix exclusive — not part of the Apple TV F1 deal. So you still need a $7.99-to-$24.99 Netflix subscription for the documentary, and Apple TV for the live races. The two are separate.
The Brad Pitt F1 movie released by Apple in 2025 is on Apple TV.
Bottom line
F1 in 2026 is simpler than it has been in years. One service, $12.99 a month, every race. The downside is that the free over-the-air ABC weekends are gone, and the upside is that the production is reportedly the best F1 broadcast in US history.
For an F1-only fan, this is a strong deal. For a household that already pays for Apple TV for the original shows, F1 is a free upgrade. For a household that does not pay for Apple TV at all and watched F1 entirely on ABC, the move costs $156 a year that was free before.
If you are not sure whether the Apple TV bundle is worth it for your household, run our Tailor Fit quiz. We will look at what you already pay for and recommend whether to add Apple TV or stay where you are.
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Last verified: 2026-06-04 against live carrier and rights data. Streaming rights shift quarterly — we re-check every season.
Sources: Apple-F1 deal coverage from Motorsport.com and Yahoo Sports (October 2025); Liberty Media Q1 2026 commentary on F1 broadcast handover; SPORTS-RIGHTS-MASTER.md (verified 2026-06-04); APPS-MASTER.md.