Formula 1 will introduce a “premium” version of its official streaming service F1 TV, offering new features to viewers for the first time.
The new offering will feature 4K footage, new feed options and allows viewers to watch on up to six different devices.The premium tier is expected to sit alongside the existing packages: F1 TV Pro, which offers live streams of track action, and F1 TV Access, which does not. No price has been announced for the new premium service. F1 TV Pro, which was available in 92 territories last year, was priced at $84.99 (£67) annually in the USA.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali revealed their plans for the new tier last week, after confirming F1 TV subscriptions rose by 15% in 2024. “Capitalising on this success, we are launching a new higher-priced premium tier this year to target avid fans,” he said.
“It will offer enhanced functionality, including 4K ultra-high definition, multi-view, a virtual pit wall, and the ability to watch across up to six devices.”
F1 expects to see further growth in subscriptions this year and increased revenue as a result of the new premium tier. The USA remains the largest market for F1 TV, but FOM is also in negotiations with traditional broadcasters, as its current deal with ESPN will expire at the end of this year.
ESPN did not agree terms before its exclusive negotiation period with FOM expired. But amid speculation F1 could reach a deal with Netflix, Domenicali confirmed FOM are still in discussions with ESPN.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“With regard to ESPN and Formula 1, let me say that I can deny the sort of situation that is negative because, first of all, we need to be thankful for what ESPN is providing to us,” he said. “We are very happy about the quality of the service. We need to always remember that they were first to believe in our project.
“So therefore, the fact that at the end of the exclusivity period, they have not put in place a formal offer, it doesn’t mean that the discussions are [not] going ahead. Actually, it’s the other way around. So there are still a lot of discussions to try to find the best solution.
“Of course, now, as we always said, is the month where other players are around the table. And we cannot deny the fact that there is a lot of interest around our product. We are fortunate enough to have compelling content and a growing fan base and a strong demand for different situations from various parties.
“As we always said, there is the big point related to the fact that, from one side, we always want to maximise the monetisation of our media rights, but on the other side, we need to make sure that also, in terms of awareness, in terms of growth of our fan base, we need to try to find the best way in terms of reach. Therefore, these are the two questions, the two points that are on the table. We have a lot of players that we are discussing with.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
- Hamilton making “drastic shift” in driving style to master Ferrari’s car
- Verstappen: Frustration over Bahrain result behind manager and Marko’s ‘garage row’
- Drivers’ multi-year contracts ‘don’t mean anything if there’s an exit clause’ – Russell
- Verstappen rumours are good for Aston Martin, says Alonso
- Reid received support “from the very top of motorsport” after leaving FIA
MichaelN
3rd March 2025, 8:15
“Target” avid fans and “maximise the monetisation”? He could at least swap to his public notes, and leave the corporate scheming to private meetings.
Last year they dumped the €65 annual subscription and introduced a €95 annual subscriptios, which drew heavy criticism. They then reversed that decision and made F1TV a €12 a month subscription. In other words, another huge price hike.
So long as they out the highlights up within an hour or so of the finish, I see no reason to pay these sums.
MacLeod (@macleod)
3rd March 2025, 8:26
I went from €64 to €95 an year other options was indeed €12.95 per month way to expensive. The next price increase like this I quit and going for the free screams on the web. (It’s a big bother to search for them that why I pay but that has it limits)
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 9:23
So far I was happy with F1TV, but yeah, price hikes will definitely lessen my interest. I have little interest in watching in 4k, and the mention about how many devices you can use irks my suspiction that they will put a hard stop on the standard service (i previous was able to use several devices – tablet, pc and phone) at once to spread out live timing, in car and the main feed, not sure I ever tested how many it accepts, but that will clearly be something they will now want to crack down on.
On top of that, I am annoyed at how they have now restricted watching to using either Chrome or Edge on Windows (i use Firefox for everything, but during Testing i found out that they changed something in the website and it no longer works with that).
Señor Sjon
3rd March 2025, 9:42
Iirc you can set Firefox to identify as Chrome for certain websites somewhere in the settings and it should work.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 11:35
Oh, thanks, I’ll look into that!
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 12:05
Thanks, that works!
Ideals (@ideals)
3rd March 2025, 12:23
From what I understand the assumption from the multiviewer team is that F1TV is switching to HEVC streaming soon, and Firefox does not support that (in combination with the DRM), so this will likely stop working shortly.
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2025, 14:40
@ideals Do other streaming services (Netflix etc) use HEVC? I watch F1TV on an Android tablet usually and it tends to be jumpy sometimes, occasional small lags, while other streaming services on the same device are smooth. Could be another issue.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 17:36
Well, I guess I will have to see how that goes – I would think that it makes more sense for them to offer both that (for the higher spec customers who want 4k etc.) and the other one for lower quality settings with the standard, because it also asks more processing power from my pc.
But I guess we can’t stop them, apart from either complying and using a special browser just for their platform or stopping our subscriptions.
SteveR (@stever)
3rd March 2025, 14:43
Yep, ran into this also. I contacted (or tried to contact) F1TV but only got a computer generated message asking if the problem was fixed, with no way to reply. Basically their ‘help’ system doesn’t. Added Chrome so I could view, but am not a happy camper.
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2025, 15:20
@stever I use Opera which has a Chrome architecture, another option if you want a bit less Google in your life (difficult).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th March 2025, 4:40
It’s not too bad, if you search totalsportek there’s usually lots of working streams.
S Arkazam
3rd March 2025, 10:29
I wonder how much regular commenters ‘pay’ for F1 by spending hours on this site.
Pick your hourly wage/fee, and multiply it with the hours spent here reading and commenting. You might be amazed how much you ‘spend’ already on F1 ;)
kuvemar
3rd March 2025, 13:51
What countries had this price hike? I still pay 64,99 € in Germany for Pro.
MacLeod (@macleod)
4th March 2025, 7:46
In the Netherlands I went from €64 to €99
Vincent Carlsson
6th March 2025, 15:38
In Sweden it costs €150 a year
El Pollo Loco
4th March 2025, 3:47
You also already can watch F1TV on six devices. So, that’s not even a change, but they announce it like it’s a big deal. It’s actually kind of annoying it’s only six because between phones and TVs it’s an easy limit to reach. I’d like to be able to register more devices and if they want to limit how many can be simultaneously be used I’d be fine with that. But it’s annoying that I have de-register devices and register ones as I move between houses, rooms and mobile devices.
HW Small
3rd March 2025, 8:50
And in the UK we get £35 per month for Sky Sports – no F1 tv, no option to just have the F1 feed. So please, stop whining about the price of the F1TV Premium package because the Sky option is £420 (approx $/€500) per year. Oh yes, and 4k is an extra £6 per month.
Ideals (@ideals)
3rd March 2025, 9:05
Just because Sky in the UK is even more expensive, doesn’t mean that F1TV is somehow not expensive. Feel free to complain to Sky about their pricing, but don’t tell other people to not consider the value proposition of F1TV.
Señor Sjon
3rd March 2025, 9:47
We have Viaplay making deals with FOM to increase the price of F1TV. Went from 65 to 95 last year and yearly subscriptions only continue for those who had them, otherwise you only have a monthly plan for € 11.90. All to make Viaplay survive another year.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
3rd March 2025, 9:51
I’m very happy about the option of “not watching live F1 at all“.
This service is extremely reliable, it always works, and my annual cost is zero.
LosD (@losd)
3rd March 2025, 12:04
You may not use it, but for those £420, you get much more than F1, so prices aren’t comparable.
Bob
3rd March 2025, 13:03
all that other content is worthless though if you dont want it, we are forced to pay for it just to watch f1. If you watched all the other content then yeah sure its an ok price, but most f1 fans just want to watch the f1, not football and so on………
Snowy (@snowy666)
3rd March 2025, 16:01
This. The only sport I would watch live is F1, I have zero interest in the rest. Not paying £500 for the privilege of watching live though.
Exocet
3rd March 2025, 12:34
Typical. Someone else has it worse than you so you’re not that bad off. If someone loses two legs and I just one, I’m still a leg short…
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
3rd March 2025, 13:56
Considering you get to see the full race whenever you want, old seasons etc, the value of that is way beyond the SKY F1 rubbish.
The argument of “you get all the other sky sports so be grateful” is ridiculous if you don’t want any of it.
I pay for the NFL Gamepass simply because I can watch it at a time right for me and a huge back catalogue and extra programs. I’m not paying Sky just for their coverage of some games.
But unlike NFL, Sky have cried about it and blocked the competition.
Christopher Osborne-Shaw
3rd March 2025, 18:49
Sky offer just F1 channel for £15 per month
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd March 2025, 20:01
That appears to be on top of a TV contract which costs a further £15 per month, and has a minimum term of 24 months, so it still comes to £720 for two years.
MacLeod (@macleod)
4th March 2025, 7:50
Sorry to hear you are even worse off but complain at your provider for that. For me I went from free to €64 and now €95 in 2 years… This is just bad bussines forF1 as I probally drop paying for it.
Robbie1
3rd March 2025, 9:08
Yesterday I went to the cinema with my wife: € 37,50 incl. food and beverages for a little less than 120 min of entertainment.
24 races + sprints + practice sessions + shows + highlights, available whenever I want, no more getting up early or staying up late, for less than € 200,- feels like a bargain.
I honestly think the money I spend on f1 tv pro is among the best spend bucks of my life.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
3rd March 2025, 9:23
I do not think it feels like a bargain at all. As a movie enthusiast I could get enjoyment out of €200 at a cinema that watching a whole season of F1 at home could never give me. For €30 a month I could go to cinema unlimited and it would be worth it every time, incomparable to some of the tediously boring races I’ve seen these past 18 years in F1.
I was happy paying 65 a year for F1. The price hike last year was already too much. FOM makes much more money this way than when selling rights to broadcast channels already. And in my eyes, 4K should be standard these days, let alone splitscreen. I can really understand why people would change to IPTV. I need 3 subscriptions to watch football. Then another for F1. Another 2 for MotoGP and WRC. 6 subscriptions to watch films and series. And all of them keep increasing their prices since shareholders never have enough. I am done being their milking cow.
Robbie1
3rd March 2025, 9:34
@spa
Reading your comment I have no clue why you’re even paying 1€ for F1.
You sound better off going to the movies, no one forces you to watch F1’s boring races.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
3rd March 2025, 9:45
Great argument. Way to go.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
3rd March 2025, 10:04
Welcome to the club. I refuse to be a milking cow also.
I’ll read the race reports on Mondays, it’s more than enough.
Took up the old electric guitar again => much less television.
Practicing rock riffs every Sunday afternoon. :)
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
3rd March 2025, 11:21
Yeh why are you even here? Makes no sense. I find horse racing intensely dull. Imagine if i was paying for content and complaining about it and signed up to a Racefans website where i said it was dull. You’d cart me off to the funny farm.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
3rd March 2025, 14:01
What does “some” mean to you? Do you even comprehend English or are you just pretending?
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
3rd March 2025, 18:18
Again, why are you here. You sound like you dont like it. No need to be abusive because people are calling you out
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 9:24
Yes, that is a valid perspective and good to think about – everything we consume is getting more expensive making the F1TV subscription far from an outlier.
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2025, 14:45
@bascb True, in the past few months a lot of my subscription services have seen a price hike some way above inflation. Getting greedy. Too much and I’ll be back to the ‘alternative points of access’ or simply dumping some of them.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2025, 17:24
Yeah, I am considering stuff too – although I checked and it seems F1TV will stay at €60 for me as far as I can see (renewal mid march)
Coventry Climax
3rd March 2025, 10:42
You in the wrong country. When my wife an I go to the cinema, that typically costs us less than 10 Euro for tickets, drinks and popcorn – and that’s for the both of us. (And no, there’s premieres we get to see even before they go to the UK, Germany, Netherlands or whatnot, so we get more or less the same movies being offered.)
What’s on offer at cinema’s these days though, is just as rarely interesting as F1 races, but then at least I don’t need to buy an annual subscription to go to the movies.
And that’s where your comparison is at fault: You compare a single – and chosen, singled out – event to the average price of events that require a subscription. You made the decision that movie or the occasion was worth it, which you can’t do with a full season subscription.
That’s the standard marketing trick: Just 5 Pound! In a sickeningly happy female voice.
Well, per millisecond, that is, and the obligation to pay for an entire year. Or pay 4, but then be stuck with it for two years.
Cdfemke
3rd March 2025, 11:07
Your cinema is overpriced
LosD (@losd)
3rd March 2025, 12:15
Why are you comparing prices of cinema including food and beverages, which you surely do not get in your subscription?
You could maybe defend including price for two people, if you normally watch it with others
grat
3rd March 2025, 13:53
It’s the internet. If people have nothing to complain about, their heads explode.
If F1 is boring– don’t watch it. If F1 is too expensive– don’t pay for it.
I enjoy watching F1, and I can afford what I pay to watch. /shrug
PeteB (@peteb)
3rd March 2025, 14:29
Absolutely. I enjoy watching F1 so I’ll continue to watch it. I refuse to pay for Sky so I don’t.
I’d love to watch F1TV for the on-boards and choice of commentator etc but Liberty are clearly happier with the “exclusivity premium” Sky pay instead of what they’d get from people like me so fair enough.
MacLeod (@macleod)
4th March 2025, 7:55
For Pathe I have a monthly fee of €32 with unlimited amount of movies I can watch which is more then I have time for it….. as Moviefan this is a great deal (I even get discount on beverages)
It’s on how you watch F1 for me as I am not able to visit my favorite circuits to see the races live. I could only watch highlights but that isn’t for me.
Alex
3rd March 2025, 9:14
They now have to offer an F1TV app for all major TV operating systems, not just casting. I know they have an Android TV app, but most TVs are not android, but Google TV, so the app is not officially supported, you have to sideload it. If you have an LG or Samsung, bad lock, you have no option.
Coventry Climax
4th March 2025, 13:47
I don’t care, as long as it’s not exclusively, since I have a TV provider that offers me a full motorsports pack for just some 7 Euro a month, and I don’t want that to disappear obviously.
Marcus (@marcusw)
3rd March 2025, 10:21
Whilst I totally understand why those used to paying the lower subscription fees are feeling aggrieved at the increases, it’s still a far better option than what we have to accept in the UK. Here Sky has sole rights to live coverage, and you have to pay though the nose to get it. Sky still refuses to offer an F1 only subscription, so you have to take the Sky Sports bundle, which for me at least includes lots of sports in which I have absolutely ZERO interest.
In the past I managed to sign up to F1TV Pro and used it successfully via a VPN. It was a great service with good coverage & commentary, good on demand playback/catch-up and excellent additional features and specials. Sadly it’s become very difficult to circumvent the region restrictions, so Sky Sports is now the only viable (easy) option. I have just committed to six months at an additional £26 per month for my NowTV (part of Sky) subscription. Whilst the coverage quality is good (especially in 4K, although that’s an extra £6 per month!) it is still a frustrating experience using the NowTV player on my TV. F1TV was far more user friendly. I would happily pay £12 per month for F1TV Pro if I could do it legally in the UK.
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
3rd March 2025, 12:19
Yeah I’m in the same boat. Paying for Sky is out of the question – the price is ridiculous when I have no real interest in any of the other sports provided – especially since the WEC races are no longer going to be on Eurosport.
My main problem with NowTV is that they don’t make the races available on demand, so if you miss it, you’re screwed. I can’t always be guaranteed to be free at the time the race is on, and not having it available on catch up makes it a complete waste of money.
I wish something like F1TV was available in the UK. I accept that it’s more expensive than people would like, but at the moment it’s still far cheaper than any other option available to UK F1 fans. For now, I’ll just keep trying to catch the races in pubs, or watching the highlights on C4. But it’s really hard to stay engaged and excited about a sport when the results are invariably spoiled before you have a chance to see it.
Jonathan Teague
4th March 2025, 3:24
@mazdachris I have the same issue with Now TV. The only way I found to get around it is to move broadband to EE and get EE TV. I got the big sport package which moved over my Now Sports pass billing to them, and they sent an EE TV Box pro which lets me record all the F1 sessions. Only trade off is they don’t offer Ultra Boost yet but apparently ‘its coming soon’.
It works well and even managed to record all of the pre-season testing without any issues. Only thing it’s not good at is extending the recordings if there is a delay so always need to record the after shows just in case.
Ben
3rd March 2025, 11:28
I agree, i did the same with F1TV until they stopped it. The coverage has no ads, the commentary is better and the reliability is much higher. Why on earth would I want to complain about 12 a month over 35 a month with an annoying broadcaster?
Shimks (@shimks)
3rd March 2025, 13:03
If they will guarantee that Crofty won’t do any commentating, I’ll gladly upgrade. I didn’t appreciate listening to yet another of his comedy specials over the three days of testing.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd March 2025, 14:05
@shimks There is already an option on F1TV that doesn’t feature David Croft as they have been producing there own broadcast with there own commentary team for a few years now.
You have the ‘international’ feed which is the raw/uninterrupted raw feed with multiple commentary language options which uses the Sky commentary as the English option.
And then there is the ‘F1 Live’ feed which featured some F1TV exclusive split-speed/analysis stuff as well as it’s own commentary team (One which is also used by Channel 4 for there highlights). It is IMO significantly better than Sky’s commentary/coverage which is why I jump through some hoops with a VPN & stuff to get access to F1TV Pro in the UK.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd March 2025, 14:10
Oh & on the current F1TV pro tier you also get access to live onboard cameras from all 20 cars which all include team radio as well as video feed options for the driver tracker & data channel which offers some different timing information.
Shimks (@shimks)
3rd March 2025, 18:32
Thanks, @stefmeister! 🤘
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2025, 14:48
Does this mean F1TV will finally be available on a 4K smart TV via a standard app?
falken (@falken)
3rd March 2025, 20:00
Very unlikely. Your TV is probably out of date, and never receiving updates, within a few years of purchase. There’s no such thing as “standard app” so your outta luck.
I’ll keep my dumb TV till it dies!
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2025, 20:42
@falken I just mean an F1TV app downloaded and accessed directly via the TV, like Netflix, Max etc, rather than channelling the signal to the TV in some other way. Last time I checked there was no native F1TV app.
LosD (@losd)
4th March 2025, 8:09
Their device support is horrendous. There’s no XBox app either, and last time I checked, for some reason their web app doesn’t work for live streaming in the XBox browser (that may be a browser issue though. I haven’t really needed the browser for much else, but I see complaints about it online)
BenjaminS (@benihana)
3rd March 2025, 15:06
So here in France they say F1 TV is available, but you have to be very careful with the fine print. They do not have any replays, programs or races except live and as soon as it is off the air it is gone. I contacted them last year and was told that due to cigarette sponsorship laws, McLaren has Vuse sponsorship, we cannot see replays or programs with replayed images because of them. However, a streamer here in France that has exclusive coverage of F1 in France has replays of all sessions including ore season for a full week available to me. So, regular tear, pro tear or this new 4k stuff does not bother me as I refuse to even bother with the silliness called F1 TV. If the FOM ever decide to allow the French F1 fans to select how to watch F1 content at a fair and reasonable rate I’ll think about it, for now I will ignore them.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
3rd March 2025, 16:17
@benihana I don’t know why you were told that it was because of the cigarette sponsorship as that isn’t the reason.
The reason the replays aren’t available is the same reason that F1TV Pro isn’t available at all in other regions and that is simply down to agreements with local broadcasters/streaming platforms which give them exclusive rights to live and/or replayed coverage in that region.
F1TV Pro and some of the other race replay benefits have also been removed from other regions due to renewed or new TV deals where the broadcasters have requested/paid for & been given exclusivity deals that lock out F1TV.
BenjaminS (@benihana)
3rd March 2025, 16:36
Thanks for the reply and the explanation, really appreciated. As I mentioned, I should have been more clear, the F1 TV folks gave me a terrible excuse I did not believe and while the current F1 broadcaster has the replays and access to F1 TV as well, but you also need to add a few things to get access to F1 TV through Canal+ and so I watch the French broadcast on Canal+ but I do miss the Tech talk segments of the English version of F1 TV.
Biixi
3rd March 2025, 17:20
Went from around 80€ to 140€ or year.
Seriously considering other cheaper options
Staffan Hansson
3rd March 2025, 18:24
So then we’re just a year from a subsciption with ads then.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
3rd March 2025, 18:25
I got an email that my subscription was extended with 1 year from 1st of March.
Happily surprised that the fee stayed the same €94,99 for a full year access to all live feeds via F1 TV Pro. Last year there was a big price hike from €64,99 (I paid €51,99 as I got 20% discount) to €94,99 and this year I was unsure as they no longer offered annual subscription so I would be forced to the more expensive monthly version.
The subscription also always me to watch F1 when on holiday abroad, last year I watch from France, Germany, Slovakia, Egypt and US.
Curious if they would allow an upgrade to the premium subscription although not sure if it really offers extra value.
But €95 is still pretty cheap for 30 live races and qualifying sessions per year as well as added content and easy replay options including history archive.
F1 TV Pro works well for me – I cast to TV from Iphone and watch driver/timing from Ipad.
mantresx (@mantresx)
3rd March 2025, 19:04
4K is all well and good, but they should do something about the framerate…
They trasmit in the native 50fps but for the large majority of mobile devices and TVs in NTSC regions it looks choppy.
I had to do lots of research to see which streaming device and TV brand available in north america would take that feed and display it smoothly.
In the end an Apple TV and LG Oled was the perfect solution. But they should really offer the option to choose a 60fps stream (even if it’s interpolated, non-native).
Tom
10th March 2025, 22:57
Do you run the Apple TV and LG Oled together or you can do the LG OLED alone ? Wondering cuz I have had an LG OLED, but had to constantly just stream from the phone.
Simon
3rd March 2025, 20:54
Oh Domenicali, you never cease to amaze… maybe his quote should read
“Capitalising on this success, we are launching a new higher-priced premium tier this year to ̷t̷a̷r̷g̷e̷t̷ fleece avid fans”
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
4th March 2025, 1:53
I won’t be upgrading any subscription until the “coming soon” android TV app is released. It’s been 5 years and still nothing.
Regardless, the annual cost is already too much for F1TV Pro and I have little doubt it will increase again in the near future.