ESPN is a household name for sports in the United States for broadcasting football, soccer, hockey, baseball, golf, auto racing, and more. But that is changing at the end of the 2025 racing season. ESPN is losing its broadcasting rights for Formula One in the U.S. following the recent success of the F1 movie, produced by Apple Studios. Apple has recently bought the broadcasting rights, as ESPN’s contract is set to expire at the end of this season. Now, this may not sound so alarming to casual fans, but it‘s a huge problem for die-hard fans like myself. The secret issue behind all of this is that Apple TV+ adds a barrier to viewing the races. Previously, viewing the races was free to anyone with a TV and a cable box, but now, to watch the races, a subscription to Apple TV is needed. At $12.99 per month, this fee will move many fans away from watching despite its recent uptick in viewership.  This subscription gives subscribers access to its original shows/ movies, but now F1 and F1 TV will be included in this price. Having F1 on ESPN was amazing for the nonexistent cost, accessibility, and broadcast quality. ESPN knows what it is doing with broadcasting because that’s the whole point of the company. Apple, on the other hand, is juggling hundreds of products, and making sure that its auto racing broadcasting is perfect is its least priority. Over the past several years, after the Drive to Survive TV show was released, there was an exponential increase in viewership and publicity for Formula One internationally. This is partially because ESPN allows anyone to watch the races. When F1 Academy tried to launch into the next big thing, they had trouble catching the same publicity as F1 because they didn’t have the same exposure as F1 had. This is what could happen when Apple takes over the rights. Apple wants to capitalize on the success of the F1 movie, but that was only made possible because of the exposure that ESPN put in all of those years to get the F1 movie to become a success. In conclusion, F1 moving over to Apple TV next year has mixed pros and cons, but in total, it will try to continue on Formula One’s success as the number one racing series in the world.