ESPN secures $75-$90 million deal for US F1 television rights

American international cable sports channel ESPN has reportedly secured a deal with F1, giving the channel the rights to telecast the sport in the United States for another three years until the end of the 2025 season. While Amazon and Comcast were also both part of the negotiations, the Disney-owned channel eventually won the bid.

The Sports Business Journal's report on the matter reads:

“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. Amazon reportedly put in a higher bid – said to be around $100-million per year – with the right to sublicense to a linear broadcast network.”

The United States has witnessed a steep growth in the F1 fanbase, especially since the release of the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive. The country is set to host three races from the 2023 season in Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas.

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Ferrari believes reliability will be a key factor in 2022 F1 championship fight

Ferrari and Red Bull have essentially dominated the 2022 season so far, being the only two teams this season that have won in all nine races this year. Both teams, however, have also suffered significant reliability issues over the season, with the Prancing Horse visibly struggling at the moment. Ferrari senior performance engineer Jock Clear admitted that reliability will be an important factor influencing the world championship this season.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Clear said:

“We’ve seen, not wishing bad luck on Max [Verstappen], or not wishing to sort of win it by virtue of DNFs and that sort of thing, but reliability will play a part in this championship later on in the year as well, for everyone. So, you know, there’s more dice to roll.”

“What we need to do is make sure that we go to every race, and we do the best job we can in terms of performance. We make sure we get on the front row and put it on pole and keep the pressure on Max and keep driving as Charles [Leclerc] has and as we’ve seen Charles drive all season very, very well.”

Mercedes are certainly lagging in terms of performance but have nailed their reliability this season, with George Russell, in particular, showing impressive consistency.