ESPN gained the rights to broadcast F1 in the United States from the start of the 2018 season, taking over from NBC Sports.
Its tenure as the rights holder has coincided with a boom for F1 in the US, accelerated by the success of the Drive to Survive series on Netflix. October’s United States Grand Prix in Austin enjoyed a record crowd of 400,000 fans, while a second US race will join the calendar this year with the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
ESPN reported that 2021 was the most-viewed F1 season on American television on record, enjoying an average viewership of 934,000 per race that marked a 54% increase on 2020 and was almost 200,000 greater than the previous record set in 1995.
2022 marks the final year of the existing contract for ESPN to show F1 in the US, but the network is clear in its ambitions to keep building on the gains that have been made.
Speaking on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, ESPN president of programming and original content Burke Magnus…
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