Apple and F1 are continuing to find ways to expose races to more viewers, and the newest experiment will be opening Apple TV to everyone for the Austrian Grand Prix. Apple today will announce that this month’s race in the European nation will be available to anyone who downloads Apple TV and has an Apple ID, with no paid subscription required. That will include practice, qualifying and the Grand Prix.
The move suggests that F1 is looking to Apple to find ways to get the sport in front of more people, after it moved completely off linear TV this season. Other steps Apple has taken this year include airing races on Times Square billboards, at IMAX movie theaters and alt-casts on the free platform Tubi. Apple has said that its viewership numbers so far this season have been comparable to or above what F1 was doing last year on ESPN, but it has yet to publicly release any numbers.
At this year’s Indy 500, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown was asked by SBJ if he thought Apple is doing enough with its F1 rights: “Well I think you can always do more, but a lot of people’s concern was, ‘Would the viewing numbers go down?’ In fact, they’re up a lot. I think that was everyone’s really only concern -- when it goes behind a paywall, but the numbers are up. I’ve heard 25-30%. I’ve heard the broadcast is awesome, the different features are awesome and ... I think that product will only get better, better and better.”
