For most of Formula One's televised history, the sport reached fans through a network of national and regional broadcasters who purchased rights from the commercial rights holder — first Formula One Management under Bernie Ecclestone and later, from 2017, Liberty Media. These broadcasters took what is known as the World Feed: a centralised television production of each Grand Prix that has been produced entirely by FOM's in-house team for all rounds since the 2023 season.
The concept of enhanced, multi-channel Formula One coverage predates F1 TV considerably. In 1996, Ecclestone launched the F1 Digital+ satellite subscription service — sometimes called "Bernie Vision" — which offered additional camera angles, pit-lane feeds, onboard channels, and live timing data alongside the standard single-camera World Feed. The service was produced from a 1,200 square metre air-conditioned tent requiring 18 trucks for European races or two Boeing 747 aircraft for fly-away events. F1 Digital+ was shut down at the end of 2002 after commercial failure, but its production model proved influential: FOM steadily absorbed the World Feed role from local broadcasters across the following two decades, with the last host broadcaster — Tele Monte Carlo for the Monaco Grand Prix — handing over production after the 2022 race.
In 2018, Formula One launched F1 TV as its direct-to-consumer offering. The service launched initially in Germany, France, the United States, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, and parts of Latin America before expanding to further territories.
F1 TV provides live streams of every Formula One session — practice, qualifying, sprint events, and races — without commercial breaks. A principal selling point is access to all onboard camera feeds for every driver simultaneously, a volume of content that no single broadcast partner has ever offered in full. The platform also carries the Pit Lane Channel, showing shots from the pit lane, alternative camera angles, detailed weather and tyre information, and additional team radio. Subscribers can access the Driver Tracker, a live positional map of all cars on track during any session, alongside a timing screen showing real-time lap times and sector information.
Additional content includes a Data Channel with live timing, pit-stop data, tyre status, weather updates, and FIA statements, as well as a Highlights Channel providing rolling in-race highlights. Historic race replays and exclusive documentary programming round out the on-demand library.
The service operates with a country-of-residence restriction linked to existing broadcast agreements. As of 2019, F1 TV required a valid credit card registered in the viewer's home country, and subscribers outside the European Union could not use the service abroad. Where a national broadcast partner holds exclusive live rights, F1 TV's live component is typically unavailable in that territory.
F1 TV is unavailable in Russia and Belarus following Formula One's termination of Russian broadcast contracts in March 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
From 2026, as a consequence of Apple securing exclusive United States broadcasting rights to Formula One, F1 TV users in the United States are required to hold an Apple TV subscription to access live sessions through the platform. Archived content, exclusive programming, and supplementary telemetry feeds remain accessible without the Apple subscription.
A number of premium broadcast partners offer F1 TV access as part of their own subscription packages. In Australia, Foxtel subscribers gained free access to F1 TV Pro from 2023. F1 TV's enhanced multi-feed content — including all onboard streams and the Battle Channel, a split-screen feed co-produced with Sky Sports UK focusing on wheel-to-wheel battles between up to three cars — is made available by broadcasters including Sky Sports F1 in the United Kingdom, Fox Sports in Australia, Sky Sport F1 in Italy, Movistar F1 in Spain, Sky Sport in Germany, Play Sports in Belgium, and Art Sport in Kosovo, reaching viewers across twelve countries.