According to the Sports Business Journal, F1 has agreed to renew its rights deal with ESPN through 2025.
What’s Happening:
- While the three-year deal with Disney’s ESPN still doesn’t have a signed contract, the racing series told Amazon and Comcast executives on Friday that neither company's bid was going to be accepted.
- SBJ sources say that ESPN has agreed to pay around $75-90M per year for the rights.
- Currently, ESPN pays in the neighborhood of $5M per year for the rights, having signed a 3-year/$15M deal in 2019.
- ESPN’s deal gives the media company flexibility to put a small, but undetermined number of races exclusively on its ESPN+ streaming service. Most races will be carried on linear television, either ABC or ESPN, sources said.
- F1 found a robust market for its media rights thanks largely to increasing television viewership that has resulted in around 1.0 million viewers per race.
More ESPN News:
- The UFC 276 Prelims will air on ABC and ESPN on Saturday, July 2nd at 8 p.m. ET. This will be the first ever ABC Primetime airing of UCF as part of the Blockbuster Championship doubleheader of UFC International Fight Week 2022.
- One of the most intense rivalries in sports history will be relived in Unrivaled, a new, two-hour ESPN E60 program hosted by Jeremy Schaap, debuting Sunday, June 26th, at 1:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.
- ESPN has promoted executive Nate Ravitz to the role of Senior Vice President, Digital Content after a long tenure with online strategy and fantasy sports efforts for the network.
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