Liberty Media asserts that the idea of beginning negotiations together for the television agreements of Formula 1 and MotoGP under its new ownership is not something to consider.
On Monday, April 1, the American giant Liberty Media announced the acquisition of 86% of Dorna Sports and the MotoGP World Championship in a €4.2 billion deal.
The acquisition, expected to be completed by the end of 2024, means that Liberty now owns the two biggest motor racing series in the world, F1 and MotoGP.
During an investor call on Monday, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei ruled out the possibility of the company negotiating joint television deals for MotoGP and F1, especially due to regulatory issues. But Greg Maffei is confident that Liberty knows how to market MotoGP to potential media partners thanks to its “understanding of how the media landscape is evolving.”
“The only thing we will not do is negotiate MotoGP and Formula 1 together, both for regulatory issues and the structure of our agreement with F1 partners and teams,” Greg Maffei said.
“So, it’s not a scenario to consider. I would like to think that Liberty has insights into how the media landscape is evolving and how to make the product appealing to media partners beyond the traditional bases of Italy, Spain, and France, and to help grow in other markets. I think we have insights into that.”
In the same call, Greg Maffei said he was “very confident” that Liberty’s acquisition of MotoGP would pass scrutiny from antitrust authorities without issues.
While not disclosing plans for growing the MotoGP fanbase, Greg Maffei highlighted the various successes Liberty has had in opening up F1 to a wider audience since acquiring it in 2016.
“As for growing the fanbase, I mean many things,” he added. “We have obviously had success with Netflix, but we have also succeeded in opening up F1 in many other ways, whether it’s social media, bringing drivers to race fans on Twitch, fan zones, really changing the perspective on how this sport is done. This is a fantastic sport, and its passionate fan base knows how exciting it is. But our goal is to somehow expose it to a broader world, as we have done with Formula 1.” – the Liberty Media CEO concluded.
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