Sports broadcaster ESPN has struck a multi-year deal to replace the NBC Sports division of media group NBCUniversal as the US rights-holder to the Formula One motor racing championship.
The deal announced today (Wednesday) will commence with the 2018 season and brings F1 back to its original television home in the US. ESPN and ABC will televise all 21 races in the championship, with the latter network having aired the first Formula One race ever broadcast in the US in 1962.
More than 125 hours of Formula One programming, including all practice sessions, qualifying and races, will air live and in replay across ESPN and ABC platforms in 2018.
Sean Bratches, managing director of commercial operations at Formula One, said: “ABC’s Wide World of Sports first started airing live grands prix in the early 1960s and this linear and digital partnership with ESPN represents a significant step forward in achieving Formula One’s aim of broadening the sport’s appeal. The US market is a very important growth opportunity for Formula One and we are looking forward to working with ESPN to ignite the growing fan interest.”
Formula One made its debut on American television with the airing of highlights from the Monaco Grand Prix on ABC’s Wide World of Sports on June 10, 1962, one week after the race was run. Select races appeared on ABC until 1988. ESPN began televising F1 races with a 10-race schedule in 1984, expanding to 14 races from 1985-1988, and then 15 from 1989-1993. ESPN aired 16 races in 1994, then a high of 17 in 1995, followed by 16 in both 1996 and 1997, the last years the championship appeared on ESPN.
NBC Sports began broadcasting F1 in the US in 2013, but said it elected not to extend its deal following last year’s takeover of the series by mass media company Liberty Media.
NBC Sports said in a statement: “Although we take great pride in having grown Formula One’s visibility and viewership since we became its exclusive US media rights holder in 2013, this will be our last season with the series. In this case, we chose not to enter into a new agreement in which the rights holder itself competes with us and our distribution partners. We wish the new owners of F1 well.”