The reported deal means fans won’t have to pay a specialty fee to watch Formula 1 races.
Bravo, ESPN! According to reports, ESPN will televise Formula 1 races for at least another three years until 2025. The Bristol, Connecticut-based firm under Disney ownership won the rights by outbidding contenders Comcast and Amazon. Another possible contender, NBCUniversal, never made a bid, and Netflix, famous for its popular series Drive to Survive, made too low of a bid to be accepted.
ESPN
Although the deal has yet to be signed, Formula One has notified bidders that their respective offers would not be accepted.
When ESPN took over the deal from NBC in 2019, they won the bid with an offer of $15 million for three seasons. This time, though, the agreement is for a reported total of $270 million at its highest point for the same number of years.
Races will be televised to American audiences, carried as they have been for the last three years on ESPNN (ESPN News) News, ESPNU, ESPN2, and ESPN. U.S.-based races will air on ABC. Another channel. ESPN+, could stream a small number of races, but only those that don’t interfere with programs on the network’s regular satellite television channels.
It is uncertain whether American announcers will replace the cast associated with the British Sky network. In the current contract, ESPN opted for the Sky connection because of lower costs. But at this point, we may or may not continue to get coverage from David “Crofty” Croft, Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, and others.
Be that as it may, the headline news is that it looks like fans will be able to continue watching live events as they have been accustomed to. Hurray, ESPN!
