Formula 1 has a new revenue stream: your ears. On October 23, 2026, Formula 1 and ad-tech firm Consumable launched the F1 Audio Network, a product that packages the sport’s fanbase as a sound-on audio audience and sells it to brands through Consumable’s existing mobile-app inventory. It’s available to buyers immediately.
What’s in the product
The F1 Audio Network isn’t new F1 podcasts or commentary. It is an audience product: Consumable supplies the delivery and measurement layer, while F1 lends its brand and visual identity. Three pieces carry it:
- Visual Audio – Consumable’s full-screen, sound-on mobile ad format, dressed in F1’s look.
- PODiQ – the identity and intelligence layer used to make F1 audiences addressable and actionable for advertisers.
- Consumable’s audio infrastructure – the existing supply chain that matches brands with app inventory.
Consumable says its platform reaches more than 220 million Comscore-verified monthly users in the US, 830 million globally, and delivers 30 billion monthly audio impressions.
The gap between reach and F1 fans
Those are platform numbers, not F1 numbers. The release does not say how many F1 fans the network actually reaches, which apps carry the ads, how PODiQ identifies an F1 fan, or what its listener signals include. Pricing, minimum spend, launch advertisers and verification partners are also absent.
“Formula 1 fandom doesn’t stop when the race ends,” said Mark Levin, Consumable’s chief executive. “With the F1 Audio Network, we’re taking the passion and attention for Formula 1 and making it addressable, measurable, and available at scale.”
The 830 million global figure sits close to F1’s own March 2026 fanbase estimate of 827 million, but the two numbers are unrelated. One describes Consumable’s worldwide platform reach; the other is F1’s fan count. Buyers should not conflate them.
Why this matters for marketers
F1 has been stacking commercial deals as its US audience grows, from Apple’s exclusive broadcast rights to Disney’s season-long program and Salesforce’s AI fan support. Those are sponsorships, with rights and category terms. The F1 Audio Network is different: it’s a media buy. Brands get F1-linked audio impressions without signing a sponsorship or buying into F1’s own properties.
That makes F1-adjacent reach more accessible, but it shifts the due diligence onto the buyer. The pitch leans on sound-on and brand-safe placements, yet the release names no completion rates, listen-through benchmarks or third-party verification for its near-zero invalid traffic claim.
Consumable’s earlier test with Edison Research showed a home security brand gain 29 points of unaided awareness across audio, image and video formats. That study pooled results and had no control group, so treat it as directional, not proof that the Visual Audio format itself did the work.
Context is friendly to the idea. Triton Digital noted audio accounts for 31% of consumers’ media time but only 9% of ad budgets. Curated audience packages built around a recognisable brand are a direct response to that gap: instead of buying a list of stations or shows, you buy a named audience.
How to approach it
Treat the F1 Audio Network as branded inventory rather than an official partnership. Before testing it, push for the segment definition behind PODiQ, a named verification vendor for traffic and brand safety, and any sound-on performance data Consumable can share. A small pilot that measures brand lift, not just impressions, is the sensible first step.
For publishers and rights holders, the play is worth watching. If F1 can license its brand to an ad-tech intermediary that sells across third-party supply, other sports with large digital audiences and thin owned audio inventory may follow.
Source: PPC Land
