Formula One in Amazon Prime talks for F1 TV

The Formula One motor-racing championship is holding talks with internet company Amazon over a carriage deal for its OTT service F1 TV.

F1 TV launched in full ahead of May’s Spanish Grand Prix. Formula One is in negotiations to offer F1 TV via the Amazon Prime subscription service in markets where the local broadcast partner has given up some of its rights under new or renegotiated deals.

F1 must negotiate the freedom to launch its OTT service in each media-rights deal it agrees, as broadcasters who agree to the F1 TV launch in their territory lose some exclusivity.

Formula One’s head of global sponsorship and commercial partnerships, Murray Barnett, told the Digiday website: “It makes sense for us to be on there (Amazon Prime) because it’s an open platform and we’re already in discussions with them about distribution in the future.

“In the US we have an agreement with ESPN that allows us to exploit our own OTT service separately so we’ll definitely be on Amazon Prime (there).”

Barnett added: “We want to be one of the smarter channels on the Amazon Prime platform. (F1 TV) is part of how we’re building a direct relationship with our fans because that’s always been something that’s run through our promoters or TV partners…. we see F1 TV as an independent revenue stream outside of the relationship with our TV partners.”

Formula One has existing business ties with Amazon. The championship last week signed a new partnership with Amazon Web Services, an agreement the motor-racing series says will open up new levels of data access to fans.

AWS, a division of internet company Amazon, will serve as the official cloud and machine learning provider of F1.