Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says the series’ deal with Apple TV in the USA has provoked a reaction from other broadcasters around the world.

He says the deal with the technology giant has made other rights holders value the series higher than before.

“We are a worldwide sport where the fragmentation of different deals [makes it] crucial to be in the right market with the right partner,” Domenicali told investors this week. “And what I can say straight away is that the fact that we signed with Apple immediately has been a sort of a wake-up call [for] the actual partners around the world to say, ‘yay, we want to stay with you, we want to invest, so what’s next?’”

However Domenicali said FOM is not looking to spread its Apple TV deal to all markets beyond the USA.

“It’s great because it will attract [attention to] the fact that Apple is a global partnership,” he said. “And for sure, if we have countries where we can see different kinds of potential, where we work together, we will discuss with Apple too.

“But this doesn’t mean that we will cover the entire world with the only one Apple deal because we do believe that, at this time, we are much stronger the way we have structured all our deals around the world on the broadcast side. But for sure the effect of having signed the deal with Apple has been already big around the world.”

FOM announced an exclusive, five-year deal with Apple last month. Domenicali said the opportunity to promote the sport across Apple’s range of products and platforms, to an audience which closely matches F1’s target market, made it an obvious decision.

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“The US market is very, very important for our growth and the fact that we have done an incredible deal with Apple is because we do believe that all the elements that will be important for this kind of growth are there,” he said. “We know that we can count on an incredible brand that is not [just] a brand, it is a socially relevant brand. And because the nature of our fans is young, is dynamic, is multi-tasking, I think that the decision was the right one.

“In terms of engagement, we are totally committed to make sure that all the content, all the platforms that are through the Apple ecosystem can be provided. We’re going to increase even more the ratio we have today.

“So therefore, as always, when you take a decision on the business side, you balance risk versus opportunity and I think on that, it was pretty clear that the risks were minor and the opportunities are huge.

“Therefore, we are really looking forward to embrace a new chapter with them because we know them, we know they can be very progressive in proposing new things that will be very, very important to make sure that the […] social relevancy of our sport will increase. And of course this is a multi-year deal because we know that we need to be resilient on this approach and that’s why we are totally convinced that this is an incredible partnership that will be stronger and stronger in the future.”

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