Apple and Netflix Partner on F1 Programming

Apple and Netflix just teamed up to share Formula 1—live races on Netflix and Drive to Survive on both platforms.

In a move that upends conventional sports-rights patterns, the two streaming giants announced a cross-platform arrangement that will bring live F1 racing to Netflix’s audience while letting Apple TV+ and Netflix collaborate on the docuseries Drive to Survive. The immediate headline: Netflix will stream the Canadian Grand Prix in May on its platform, alongside Apple TV+. In a rare nod to synergy, Drive to Survive Season 8 will be available on both services, with premieres launching at midnight on both platforms. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, framed it as a way to broaden F1’s reach in the United States by capitalizing on Netflix’s broad, engaged audience and Apple’s live-rights footprint.

The deal sits atop Apple’s broader F1 strategy. Apple TV+ secured the rights to stream F1 races last year in a deal reportedly valued around $150 million per year, a sum that signals both a bedrock commitment to live sports and a push to knit F1 more tightly into Apple’s ecosystem. The Netflix component suggests a deliberate test: can live events coexist with a strong, serialized behind-the-scenes product on a competing streaming service? The arrangement also includes cross-platform access through other channels already tied to F1 content, with Tubi, Comcast, DirecTV, and Amazon Prime Video cited as holding access to select F1 programming.

For fans, the practical impact is a broader menu of options. Those who already subscribe to Apple TV+ will have live race access through Apple’s platform, while Netflix households gain a path to live racing via the Canadian Grand Prix and still enjoy Drive to Survive’s behind-the-scenes storytelling—on the same week the docuseries returns. The move reinforces the arc F1 has been pursuing since the Drive to Survive boom: more exposure, more ways to watch, and less dependence on a single broadcaster or platform.

From an industry vantage point, the collaboration is telling on several fronts. First, it underscores the importance of live sports as a magnet for subscription伸—yet it also foreshadows a more fragmented, multi-service ecosystem where fans are asked to toggle between apps for different facets of the same sport. Second, the dual-release strategy—live events with Netflix and serialized content on both platforms—provides F1 with a diversified distribution ladder: live engagement salted with evergreen, bingeable drama that can travel across services without one platform owning all primary content. Third, the involvement of IMAX for simulcast live events adds a theater-like dimension to the sport’s distribution, hinting at a broader strategy to turn F1 into a cross-media event rather than a single-screen experience.

Two to four practitioner insights emerge from the deal. One, rights economics for marquee sports are evolving: Apple’s multi-year, high-dollar commitment to live rights and Netflix’s appetite for concurrent live events indicate a blended monetization approach rather than a single-broker model. Two, content strategy matters as much as carriage: Drive to Survive remains a force multiplier for engagement, while live races deliver real-time values that can justify higher subscriber-tier economics. Three, platform fragmentation is a real consumer risk: viewers may need multiple subscriptions to follow live races, docu-series, and ancillary content, renewing the ongoing tradeoff between convenience and cost. Four, what to watch next: the market will likely answer with more cross-platform live events under multi-brand partnerships, plus expanded theatrical or theater-adjacent streaming experiences via IMAX or similar formats.

Bottom line: the Apple-Netflix F1 partnership signals a strategic shift toward broader, multi-platform access to marquee sports, expanding reach while also inviting fans to navigate a denser streaming landscape. The catch, as always, is cost and convenience—the more fans must subscribe to multiple services to follow a single sport, the more important the value proposition becomes.

Sources

Apple and Netflix are teaming up to share Formula 1 programming