Netflix, Amazon Named Suitors as $100 Million Bidding War Set to Break Out Over F1 Media Rights

F1 has grown massively in the United States of America since the 2017 season. Netflix’s series Drive to Survive has opened a new market for the sport and attracted massive numbers of fans from the States. F1 gave the broadcasting rights to ESPN in 2017, but that contract is up at the end of this season.

The sport is entertaining offers from different broadcasters like NBC Universal, ESPN, Amazon, and even Netflix. The streaming platform is very keen to acquire the broadcasting rights for the sport so that they can stream the race live on their platform.

Will Netflix get the broadcasting rights of F1 from ESPN?

As reported by Sportscasting.com, ESPN currently pays around $5 million annually to broadcast F1. But they are ready to up their offer and are willing to pay $70 million annually after the 2022 season to retain their rights to the sport. However, Liberty Media, owner of F1, is projecting offers in the range of $100 million.

It would be interesting to see if Disney-owned ESPN can pay around $100 million annually and meet the demands of Liberty Media. If they cannot do so, then a platform like Netflix would be an excellent potential broadcaster for Formula One.

The streaming platform already airs Drive to Survive every year and has also extended its contract for 2 more seasons of the show. It would make sense that they get the broadcasting rights also so that everything stays on one platform.

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But ESPN’s president of programming and original content Burke Magnus is confident that they will get a deal with F1 to continue their partnership.

ESPN is confident of retaining the broadcasting rights of the sport

Magnus revealed he is very positive and assured that they can retain the broadcasting rights for F1 in the future. He revealed they were pursuing a new deal aggressively.

“[We are pursuing the rights] very aggressively–we want to continue what we started here, and there’s so much happening right now that excites us,” said Magnus.

But Liberty Media President Greg Maffei has not confirmed the deal with ESPN. “This year we’re on ESPN and next year we’re looking for a broadcast partner. We have a lot of interest. ESPN has been a great partner. They got a very good deal because we’ve had a rise in popularity and they’ve capitalized on that as well,” said Maffei.

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It will be a fascinating battle between giant companies to acquire the broadcasting rights for one of the most-watched sports in the world. Let’s see which company gets the last laugh and the broadcasting rights for F1.