Apple announced on Friday that it had signed a five-year deal to bring Formula 1 exclusively to Apple TV in the U.S. The deal had been rumored for a while, but now it’s official: Apple just landed one of the world’s most popular—and fastest-growing—sports.
As Apple continues to build out its Apple TV subscription, sports are the obvious place to turn. Apple has dabbled in sports with its MLS package and Friday Night MLB, but this is different. In fact, buried in the press release was something I didn’t expect: Some of it will be free.
Specifically, the company says all practice sessions and select races will be available in the Apple TV app, even for people who don’t pay for an Apple TV subscription. That might sound small, but it completely changes what this deal is really about. Apple didn’t just buy the rights to show F1 races in the U.S., it’s using them to build a funnel.
Look, tech companies have been trying to buy up sports streaming rights every chance they can. The NFL has games on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and YouTube. The NBA, which starts its season soon, split its distribution rights across a handful of different platforms. Every one of those platforms hopes to use their slice of the pie to entice customers to sign up for their service.
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Basically, they pay billions to lock something behind a subscription and force you to pay. But Apple isn’t doing that here. At least, not entirely. A lot of the overall F1 content will be available for free in the Apple TV app.
There are a few reasons for that, but the most obvious is that F1 races are currently on ESPN, which is available to millions of people who either get it through their cable bundle or who subscribe to the Disney+ bundle. The sport has exploded in popularity in the U.S., largely thanks to Drive to Survive and the fact that it’s pretty easy to get ESPN. I can’t imagine Formula 1 wanted to cut off that much distribution by locking it all inside an Apple TV subscription.
Apple’s decision to make some of it free solves that. It keeps casual fans in the loop while offering something ESPN never could—a fully integrated experience that spans Apple devices and services.
And it gives F1 something just as valuable: reach. The free sessions will show up in the Apple TV app, which is already installed on millions of devices. That keeps F1 visible even to people who weren’t looking for it.
This deal isn’t structured like Apple’s MLS package, which is a separate subscription. This time, Apple made Formula 1 part of its base Apple TV service and sprinkled in free access for everyone else.
It’s also worth noting that this is Apple’s first move that looks more like ESPN than Netflix. It’s the company’s biggest step yet toward becoming a full-fledged sports network, but one built entirely around Apple’s ecosystem. Formula 1 won’t just live on Apple TV—it’ll show up in Apple News, Maps, Music, Fitness+, and the new Apple Sports app, which will feature real-time leaderboards, standings, and widgets for your iPhone’s home screen. Even F1’s own streaming service, F1 TV Premium, will stay alive and become free for subscribers.
What looked like a sports-rights announcement is really a play for attention. Apple isn’t trying to own sports—it’s trying to own how people experience them. By making part of Formula 1 free, Apple gets the best of both worlds: expanded reach for the sport, and added value for its customers.
The company knows that in an era where everything is behind a paywall, the smartest way to sell exclusivity might be to give a little of it away. And when you think about it that way, the free part of Apple’s F1 deal isn’t surprising at all. It’s inevitable.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
