Amazon, Netflix, ESPN and NBCUniversal are reportedly entering the battle for the rights to host Formula One in the United States

The popularity of Formula One is soaring in the United States, and a number of competitors may be in the hunt for broadcast rights.

Business Insider, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reported over the weekend that the U.S. broadcast rights to F1, the pinnacle of motor sports, are being fought over, with Amazon, ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix are among the contenders for the rights.

ESPN has held the rights since 2017, and before that it was NBCUniversal.

According to Insider's sources, F1 is targeting $100 million for the rights. Even so, ESPN reportedly only submitted an opening bid of around $70 million, although this is still considerably lower than the conducting rights for other major U.S. sports.

Netflix makes a lot of sense due to its global reach and the popularity of its Drive to Survive series, which has just been confirmed to air for two more seasons to cover the 2022 and 2023 F1 World Championships Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, said during the Q1 earnings call that Netflix is positive about live streaming events and assumes that revenue growth and profits will support it.

Rivals Amazon and Apple's streaming services are already making the transition, with Apple recently signing a deal with Major League Baseball and Amazon acquiring the NFL's "Thursday Night Football."

In addition, F1 has its own app for streaming sports. Access costs $79.99 per year.