F1 Is Having Some Trouble Getting Its TV Deal Squared Away For Next Season

The 2026 season is shaping up to be a big one for Formula 1, with Cadillac joining the grid as the 11th team, new power units with new manufacturers joining the sport or returning, and new technical regulations that should hopefully improve the overall on-track product.

But there's one problem: as far as the United States is concerned, F1 doesn't have a TV deal.

F1's US broadcast partner since 2018 has been ESPN, and the current deal between the two sides runs from 2022 until the end of this season.

Of course, during that stretch, Formula 1 has seen an explosion in popularity, especially in the United States, where there are now three Grand Prix in the country, with races in Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas.

So, you can understand why F1 would be keen to see the price to air their races go up, especially as the first three Grand Prix of the seasons in Australia, China, and Japan — which all aired live in the middle of the night — have performed well.

The 2026 season will be a big one for F1, but as it stands, the series is without a US TV deal. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

However, according to The Wall Street Journal, ESPN said "thanks, but no thanks" to their exclusive negotiation window with the Liberty Media-owned series. Other potential partners including Netflix (which is the home of the documentary series Formula 1: Drive To Survive, a big pieces of the series' surge unpopularity) Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, Amazon, and NBC aren't to keen on the F1's reported asking price which is reportedly $150 to $180 million per season.

Of course, ESPN and Disney have had a pretty sweet deal for a few years to air races on the networks of ESPN with a few making their way over to ABC, but it's no secret that in light of recent deals the company has made, that asking price is going to be too rich for their blood.

It's worth noting that F1 does currently offer it's own streaming app F1TV direct to consumers, but it stands to reason that they'd want a big, splashy partner to work with for the next few years.

I think that given the nature of F1's schedule, streaming is ideal. That's not the case for most sports, but because of the way F1's races, qualifying, and practice sessions air at unusual hours given the global nature of the sport, makes it an ideal fit for a streamer that wants to expand it's slate of live sports offerings.

F1 will get a deal done at some point — they can't afford not to have a deal in the US, especially with another US team joining the grid in Cadillac — though it may be at the price point they had hoped.