Charles Leclerc at the US Grand Prix - Photo: Race Pictures

Fans to watch F1 on Apple TV globally? Domenicali leaves the door open

21:23, 17 Oct

byKada Sarkozi

Stefano Domenicali does not rule a global expansion of F1's Apple TV deal after the streaming platform will begin broadcasting the competition in the US next season.

Formula 1's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, explained after taking the first steps in the US market with Apple, a deal can expand beyond the country.

The Italian told GPblog: "The world of media is quite fragmented and quite diverse. So we need to respect that. This is an asset, is a value. And I think that for sure, [the] incredible parallel Apple can offer to the system [is] a great push [for] every broadcaster or every media company to perform even better, because that's what they should do.

"First of all, we need to make sure that we do the right thing here in this market and we to be going to do it. And then of course, if there will be opportunities that will open up in different markets, let's discuss it together, and why not?

"So it's just the start of a journey that could take us in a different place. But now we are focused on making sure that the decisions we are taking in this market is the right one and we're going to invest a lot on that as a first step," Domenicali concluded.

Liberty Media's President and CEO, Derek Chang, also underlined the diversity of the market when assessing the situation. "Anyone who's close to media rights understands that none of these deals are ever coterminous.

"So the actual structure, broader deals, it is still market by market, and whether or not we see sort of the appeal for what we're going to do in the US and other markets, we'll see. And I think we can be opportunistic collectively about that."

Apple's innovations can 'benefit' others

Apple's Eddy Cue explained that the changes brought by the company can improve the product for all broadcasters.

He commented: "The existing broadcasters will hopefully get some benefits because we'll push working together on making the broadcast better.

"This broadcast goes out to everyone. I think that the technology, for example, that we brought last year to the movie and putting the cameras in the cars and things like that are things that we would like to see continued. And so and if we do that, everyone will benefit."

The trio also explained that there will be no changes to 'Drive to Survive', despite the series being a Netflix product moving forward.

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