Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Once a staple for traditional media companies, the rights to sports leagues have proven to be strong telecasts for viewership and advertising revenue. Thanks to the success of a sports deal that has benefitted from Lionel Messi’s move to Major League Soccer (MLS), technology giant Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) could be pursuing more sports rights.
What Happened: Global soccer superstar Messi landed a deal with MLS team Inter Miami in one of the biggest soccer stories in recent years.
With the exclusive rights to MLS, Apple enjoyed success in Messi’s move to the league with an uptick in viewership and streaming subscribers for its MLS Season Pass.
After the success of the MLS rights, Apple could be looking at Formula One, one of the most popular sports in the world. Owned by Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ: FWONA)(NASDAQ: FWONK), also known as The Formula One Group, it is a global motorsports league.
A report from BusinessF1 Magazine, shared by Front Office Sports, said Apple could be looking to pay $2 billion annually for the global rights to Formula One.
The total would mark around double what the league currently gets from various partners that have regional rights to the sport.
Among the companies with the rights to Formula One are ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS), which renewed its rights for the U.S. and beat out several streaming companies and media companies.
With several media partners having rights to the league in deals that range from one year to five years, Apple could look to acquire rights and pay pro-rated fees until it can get 100% exclusive rights, according to the report.
ESPN is paying between $75 million and $90 million per year for the U.S. Formula One rights, a significant increase from its past deal that paid the league around $5 million annually. Parent company Disney will air the majority of the races on ABC or ESPN, with a limited number airing exclusively on its ESPN+ streaming platform.
Related Link: Formula One Shares Could Get Lift With New Media Deal And Movie
Why It’s Important: With its AppleTV+, Apple has pushed into streaming with original content and landing deals with several top-name directors and actors.
Landing the MLS deal helped show the seriousness of the company’s pursuit of sports content alongside a deal with Major League Baseball for several games.
Apple was among the companies that bid on the rights to college sports conference Pac-12. it was also among the companies that bid on the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which went to YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL).
While Apple has not bid on the rights or made its intentions 100% known, a potential bid on the exclusive global rights could lead to Formula One deciding if it's okay with one company having all of the rights instead of regional partners and if it's okay with streaming being the option for its fans to see its races.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was another bidder on the U.S. rights to Formula One with all of the races on its Prime Video streaming platform. This was a move that might have led to not being chosen despite a rumored $100 million annual price tag. Rights to sublicense its rights to a linear broadcast network was rumored to be part of the Amazon bid.
Apple was involved in the move to bring Messi to the U.S., with a fee deal worked out with the superstar for every additional MLS Season Pass subscriber the company got after his signing.
The interest from Apple in the Formula One rights shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given its deals for MLS and MLB content and being involved in bids on several other media rights. Sports reporter Darren Rovell told Benzinga in November 2022 that media companies like Disney and other media conglomerates should be worried about streaming companies and technology companies such as Apple getting into sports.
“Especially Amazon and Apple, Disney cash flow does not compete to them, that’s where I thought ESPN was open. I’m surprised it took so long for them to get into it,” Rovell told Benzinga.
Streaming giant Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) is often credited with boosting the popularity of Formula One in the U.S. with its docuseries “Drive to Survive.” The sport has grown in the U.S. with record viewership and the addition of live races in the country.
In November, Formula One will go to Las Vegas as one of three U.S. dates for the 2023 season out of 24 total races.
Netflix has launched several docuseries on sports but appears to be content not getting too involved in the live sports media rights bidding wars after losing out on the Formula One rights.
Roku Inc (NASDAQ: ROKU) announced earlier this year that it will be the official streaming home of motorsports league Formula E for the U.S. Formula E is an electric vehicle motorsports league.
FWONA Price Action: Shares of Formula One Group are up 8.90% to $61.57 on Monday versus a 52-week range of $45.01 to $72.09.
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