Atlanta Braves Holdings, Inc. (BATRA) Q1 2021 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Liberty Media Corporation 2020 Q1 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, May 7. I would now like to turn the conference over to Courtnee Chun, Chief Portfolio Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that this call includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in Liberty Media's most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q or Liberty Media acquisition forms S-1 registration statement filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call and Liberty Media and Liberty Media acquisition expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Liberty Media or Liberty Media Acquisition Corporations' expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial for Liberty Media and SiriusXM including adjusted OIBDA and adjusted EBITDA. The required definitions and reconciliations for Liberty Media and SiriusXM Schedules 1 through 3 can be found at the end of the earnings press release issued today, which is available on Liberty Media's website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Greg Maffei, Liberty's President and CEO.

Thank you, Courtnee, and good morning to all of you out there. Today speaking on the call besides myself, will have Formula 1's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali; and Liberty's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wendling. Beginning with Liberty SiriusXM, we continued our share repurchases purchasing a $114 million across LSXMA and K shares from February through April. The discount stubbornly remains, and we repurchased at a look-through price of -- and SIRI of just over $4 per share. We do expect to continue to take advantage of that stubborn discount opportunity. Our ownership of SiriusXM as of April 26 stood at 77.3%. And looking at SiriusXM itself, they are off to a fast start this year with self-pay sub growth of 83%. Trial starts in the first quarter were the highest in the company's history, and they recorded record low first quarter churn. We're also experiencing rapid growth in off-platform advertising revenue. 360L, the next-generation platform is now in 2 million vehicles, providing valuable data and offering engaging features. We expect it will be about 25% of this year's installs. We are now the largest digital ad platform in North America, reaching almost 2/3 of online audio listeners. We're also continuing at SiriusXM, our expansion in the podcast segment with our acquisition of 99% invisible, furthering our content creation capabilities. Turning to Live Nation. You may have seen in today's earnings release from them, concerts are back and in high demand for dates in 2021. In fact, we have booked twice as many shows in '21 as we did in '19. Luke Bryan, the 2021 ACM entertainer of the year is on, going on tour and the Railbird Festival with headliner David Matthews Band is another notable addition. Following up on acquiring the majority stake in Veeps, we've begun our ticketed live platform and started equipping 60-plus contract venues to offer turnkey live streaming events. We continue to help artists expand revenue and creative opportunities, connecting them with more fans via Veeps and other means. Looking at the Formula 1 Group, we've had phenomenal racing this season, as Stefano will outline a little bit more in a minute. It's exciting to see the battle between Lewis and Max. It's going to be a very competitive year also for third place in the constructor championships a lot of exciting racing. The teams continue to execute well given the ongoing challenges from the pandemic. Turkey will replace Canada in June, showing the sustained demand to expand GPs. We've also extended our agreements with Canada and Japan. Looking forward to the first -- we are looking forward to the first Sprint Qualifying race in July at Silverstone and there'll be 2 more of those during the rest of the season. Drive to Survive, our programming on Netflix, continued to grow in popularity in its third season, and it's also getting recognized on the award circuits, both in the U.S. and Canada. And finally, we look forward to seeing all of you in Miami in 2022. Turning to Braves. After a slow start to the season, our record is just under 500, and we are close third in the NL East, 1.5 games out of first place. We were helped by sweeping the Nets over the last 3 games. Braves are #1 in home runs this season and also #1 in average attendance almost 16,000 per game. That is if you exclude Texas, which we'd be third, including Texas. Ronald Acuna was named National Player of the month for April. Pablo Sandoval hit 3 pinch-hit home runs in April, the most by any Braves player in a calendar month for -- in its franchise history. And as of today, we expect to expand capacity to 100% of fans after opening the season at 33%. Notably, in partnership with Emory Healthcare the Braves are offering vaccine shots before and during games against Philly, fan who get vaccinated in those games will receive 2 free tickets to future Braves games as well. And finally, the Braves looking at the Battery thyssenkrupp is expected to occupy their office space in July and Papa John's later in the summer. Demand for remaining office space remains very strong. And the Aloft and Omni Hotels had high occupancy on Friday night and Saturday night games or the nights in March with several sellouts on game nights. We continue to make good progress on Almac to SPAC. The SPAC market has changed in the way we believe is to our benefit as some of the euphoria of January and February has deflated. We believe recent weakness in the pipe market plays well for Liberty, given our strong balance sheet, our capabilities with investors and the support that we have. Finally, we wanted to share with you that we have recently published our SASB disclosure on our website as a part of our ongoing ESG efforts. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Brian discuss our financial results in a little more detail.

Thank you, Greg, and good morning, everyone. Liberty SiriusXM Group had attributed cash, restricted cash and liquid investments of approximately $1 billion, excluding $67 million of cash and restricted cash held at SiriusXM. This balance is prior to paying the Formula 1 Group, $384 million to settle the Live Nation call spread in April. The settlement of the Live Nation call spread was a nontaxable transaction among the tracking stock groups. We also have $1.1 billion of undrawn margin loan capacity at the parent level. Note that a portion of our cash will be used in 2021 to repay our 2.25% Live Nation exchangeable bonds. Based on the fair value of the bonds at quarter end, the amount of cash used would be $514 million, stock held by Liberty SiriusXM Group was nearly $19 billion, and the value of the Live Nation stock held was $5 billion. Total Liberty SiriusXM Group attributed principal amount of debt is $13.2 billion, which includes $9 billion of debt held directly at SiriusXM. Formula 1 Group had attributed cash and liquid investments of $1.4 billion at quarter end, This excludes the $429 million of cash that's held directly at the F1 opco. Post quarter end, Formula 1 Group received the additional $384 million that we just discussed in proceeds related to the Live Nation call spread. Total Formula 1 Group attributed principal amount of debt was $3.6 billion, which includes the $2.9 billion of debt held directly down at F1, leaving $724 million at the corporate level. And F1's $500 million revolver remains undrawn. Please note that during the 3 months ended March 31, '21, F1 began reclassifying certain components previously reported and other revenue into primary F1 revenue to better align with the way management currently evaluates the business. Components reclassified in the primary F1 revenue generally related to F1 TV subscriptions, certain F2 and F3-related fees, broadcast origination and support fees and digital advertising among others. Additional detail on this reclass, including the impact to the years ended 12/31/'19 and '20 can be found in Schedule 3 to our earnings release, which will be posted on our website. At quarter end, the Braves Group had attributed cash, liquid investments and restricted cash of $218 million and attributed principal amount of debt of $676 million. Liberty and our consolidated subsidiaries are in compliance with their debt covenants at quarter end. And with that, I'll turn it over to Stefano to discuss Formula 1.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning also from my side. So 2021 has begun with huge energy and momentum. In the past few weeks, we announced our segment rate in the U.S. in Miami Gardens with a huge and positive reaction from our fans, the teams and all our partners. Having the second wave in the U.S. starting in 2022, provides a great opportunity for our sport and we'll ensure we continue to increase our strong focus and strong growth there. Last week, we announced that we will have Saturday 100-kilometer Sprint Qualifying formats, at 3 races in 2021, following unanimous support from all the teams. The events will be exciting for all our fans, provide more on track action over a race weekend and give our partners and the team's greater commercial opportunities. Silverstone, one of the venues for the new format already reported a surge in ticket sale following news that they would be hosting one of this event. We have announced the 3 years extension of the Japanese Grand Prix. This has always been an important race for Formula 1, and we cannot wait for the fans to cheer on their own Yuki Tsunoda. We have extended our partnership with the Canadian Grand Prix by 2 years and welcome the new announced last week by that the Bell Media has entered into agreement to acquire the Montreal-based Canadian race promoter Octane Racing Group, which is a great news for the long-term future and development of the race in Canada. While the global situation is too fluid to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 has shown it is has the ability to overcome the issue thrown at us and continue to race safely. Just last week, we provided this to be the case. While we are not able to race in Canada this year, we have secured the replacement race in Turkey. At short notice, meaning we have not reduced the number of races in the calendar for 2021. It is very exciting to see the level of interest from both the new and historic locations to host the Grand Prix, and this gives us a possible option if required for 2021, but also good opportunities for the future. We have had very good conversation with all our promoters and all of whom we expect the races this season to go ahead as planned. And just this week, we have had the confirmation that 1,000 fans will attend here in Barcelona, the Spanish Grand Prix. And that Monaco will welcome approximately 40% of the capacity to the grandstand for the race in 2 weeks' time. Alongside the busy start of the year off the track, the racing on the track has been equally exciting and dramatic. We kicked it off our 23-race season in Bahrain and have had 3 thrilling races to date, which -- with close battles overtaking and the pack closer together than in the recent years. As Ross Brawn has mentioned, with this battle for the championship in play now, this could be a golden year for Formula 1. The season opener in Bahrain did not disappoint with Verstappen securing pole position. It was a thrilling race between Max and Lewis that was only decided in the final laps. There were also strong showings by Norris and Perez and the Japanese rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, scored points in its first F1 race for Alpha Tauri. And it looks like, he has a promising career ahead. The battle for first continuing to Imola where Max had an amazing start of the line in the rain and carried through for the win. Impressive given he started in third, behind his new teammate, Sergio Perez. Lando Norris made up for a mistake in qualifying and securing spot on the podium, showing the continuous strength of McLaren. Last week and in Portugal, Mercedes fended off a stern challenge from Red Bull as Lewis Hamilton clings a hard-fought victory in Portimao. With both starting on pole and Lewis ahead of Verstappen in second, the start of the race saw the Red Bull get past the Mercedes of Hamilton before the 7-time champion had pull it off brilliance overtakes of both his teammate Bottas and Verstappen to clinch victory. It once again shows that there is a real battle underway for this year title, and we are on the -- only the 3 races in. The competition for the third is also fierce in the constructor standing. McLaren is making the early pace, but many teams in the midfield have something to prove. And it is great to see Ferrari hitting its strike again. The spectrum of Formula 1 is resonated with fans and engagement is very high. To date, we have data for the first 2 races across the 24 principal markets we monitor, and this showed TV viewership growth over both 2020 and 2019, with particular strength in Italy, the Netherlands, France, the U.K., the U.S. and in Spain. On the digital front, unique users for F1 web and app have been up 77% on the equivalent race in 2020 and social engagement and also increased with over 30 million interaction in both of the first 2 race week. We continue to grow our social media following, it reaches 36.5 million after the Emilia Romagna GP, up from 35 million for the prior year-end. F1 TV, our OTT product, has also started the second strongly with the record viewing. Peak concurrent view at each race weekend at around 3x higher than the 2020 season average. And engagement measured by the minutes viewed over the course of the weekend is up more than 60% on the last year. We launched an update version of the app for the season that provides many additional features, including high video quality and allows us to control the viewing experience. This new version also makes it easier to find content in other collection, which includes over 2,000 hours of footage and coverage of every Grand Prix in the last 50 years, along with our latest series, F2: Chasing the Dream. F1 TV is now available in 188 territories with the premium F1 TV Pro available in 85. Season 3 of Drive to Survive debut on March 19 and continues to build mass global popularity for the sport reaching #1 on Netflix in 27 different countries and also globally. And on almost daily basis, we hear anecdotes about how the show was brought into new nontypical fans. It was great to revisit the 2020 season and see the back story of the virality of many drivers changes. I do highly recommend Episode 9, which is a terrifying exhilarating and inspiring. The show was nominated for a sport Emmy for outstanding series sport documentary and made the shortlist in the documentary category for the U.K. Broadcast Awards. Heading into the season, we have had numerous sponsorship announcement. We were pleased to renew our global partnership with the DHL, a relationship which now spans across several decades. This extended partnership will include enhanced involvement in F1 Esports Series and a present of F1 digital channels. As official partner, we was, in June, Mercedes-Aston Martin as a seat car provider and Ferrari Trento the official toast of Formula 1. In addition, we announced [indiscernible] and Drive Coffee as official supplier and welcome Global Citizen as charity partner for our WeRaceAsOne initiative. We continue to engage fans through e-sports and have a very successful series of visual Grand Prix during the off-season. Current drivers, along with former stars and future prospects competed to win a share of the $100,000 price funding their charities. As part of the continued effort to improve diversity and inclusion in Formula 1, as part of our WeRaceAsOne initiatives, we announced a female-only qualification route for the F1 Esports Series Pro Championship. This is our first female-only competition, and we hope it will encourage more drivers from the passionate and the talented female racing community with the goal of becoming the first ever female driver to be signed by an official F1 Esports Series. In closing, Formula 1 is off to a strong start in 2021. Building off the foundation put in place the last few years. The ecosystem is absolutely strong, and the competition on the track is thrilling. I want to thank all the dedicated employees of Formula 1 for their continuous diligence and hard work, and I hope you will watch the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend. Now I'll turn the call back to -- over to you, Greg. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Stefano, and thank you, Brian. To the listening audience, we appreciate your continued interest in Liberty Media. Hope you all stay healthy and safe. And with that, operator, we will open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] So we will now take our first question from Jeff at Pivotal Research.

I have one on SIRI and one on Formula 1. Greg, at 77.3 ownership stake in SIRI, all else being equal, you're probably going to cross over to 80-plus in the third quarter, your dividends go tax-free. Just wanted to get your latest thoughts on whether SIRI is going to raise their dividend materially? Are you happy with the status quo and letting your buyback sort of continue to ride higher? And then on F1 just was wondering about the color on how the $145 million cost cap is going relative to your expectations?

Well, I'll take the SIRI, and then I'll let Stefano speak to the cost cap. On SIRI, look, we -- I think that your pace may be just slightly aggressive, Jeff. I think it might be, depends on the stock price and where SIRI is buying, but it might be in Q4. But somewhere, we're in 1 of those 2 quarters we're likely to pass 80. Obviously, any dividend policies that are put aside and will be decided by the full Board there. But we have lots of alternatives in which we could either take advantage of those dividends to continue to go after the discount at SIRI, at LSXM rather at SIRI to increase the dividend or potentially sell into that buyback hold ourselves above 80 and use the capital to buy back our own stock. So there are really multiple ways to get to the same result, which is we are going after the discount. And whether it's -- through their dividend increasing or us selling of the buyback, we will be attacking the discount. Stefano, let me turn it to you about the cost cap.

Thank you, Greg. I mean, Jeff, as you know, cost cap has been one of the most important and significant things that Formula 1 introduced this year. This has had an effect not only because of the savings that the teams will make in the future, but also in the change of mentality that the major team has to apply with the organization to make sure that they can really be effective with a different line of expenditure. And this is just the first step into a new way of managing support in Formula 1. And I think that if -- if I say -- if I see what is happening around the world that everyone is focused just on the revenue side, I think the Formula 1 has just started path on the other way around. Of course, revenue is crucial. But now we have just taken the first step into the cost cap. We're going to take all the cost cap in other areas that are not closed in this moment as we edge for the future. But we are pretty sure that these are also the promise of the team, which has been a huge step in making sure that the formula is sustainable for its future.

We will now take our next question from Dan at Morgan Stanley.

Greg, just on the cash balance at Liberty Formula 1, I think it's $1.8 billion and all signs point to a strong year ahead. I'm just wondering, at what point does that become excess cash in the eyes of Liberty. And then Stefano, I have a couple of questions around drivers, which I'm wondering if you could humor me a bit. I have gotten questions from investors around the retirement of Lewis Hamilton and Vettel and what that might mean to the sport and sort of the business. I know they're coming back -- I think they are coming back for next year at least. But as you think about that and sort of the outsized impact they have on the sport, how do you -- how would you see as we think about it if it matters and how you manage that? And then I was curious, moving to Miami, obviously, a huge opportunity in the whole U.S. market. as well, is an American driver important in F1 in terms of driving popularity here in the U.S.? And do you have any expectations that we might see one anytime soon?

So on the cash at Formula 1, really at the holdco level, F1 level. I think a couple of things to note. First of all, we put that cash in place to ensure the health of the whole ecosystem, not only the Formula 1 business that we own, but really the teams and to ensure that we had liquidity, and we did use some of that liquidity for some teams during the pandemic We still have uncertainty about exactly what our revenues will be in 2021. You've heard already, we've had to cancel, for example, Canada and put Turkey in. We are getting paid for that, but those are at way reduced levels compared to what we would get if we had full fans. So we have a fairly large contingency in our own budgeting for the potential that we will not get the kind of revenues that we hope. And therefore, that cash is useful. You may also know that we committed in the forward purchase agreement with Almac with SPAC that at least $250 million would go towards the pipe in any transaction if we were to complete one. So I think we're going to see potential for opportunities in that market that could be attractive to us as the SPAC market gets more turbulent, that plays to way, as I mentioned earlier, our strengths, and we may want to put some of the cash in that. But as the year progresses and we get more certainty about promoter revenue, we will look at what we do with that cash and how to utilize it and what is the most efficacious way to deliver value to our shareholders.

If I may now, Greg, to then -- to the question related to the drivers with regard to the Lewis Hamilton. For sure, Lewis Hamilton is a great asset, he is doing an incredible job on the sporting side and in terms of image, he was able to blow the Formula 1 in other areas where not really specifically related to Formula 1. But Formula 1 itself is strong, strong -- drivers champions are always in a place where one day, they may retire. I don't know what Lewis was doing. We are talking with him, but of course, now he's focused on his actual season. He's fully boosted to make sure that he will be the only driver that he's going to win the 8 titles in the history of Formula 1. But Formula 1 is solid, robust. And for sure, whatever will be the decision of Lewis, Formula 1 will react and we'll move forward. The good news is that if Lewis, as we all hope, will stay, will have an incredible season in front of him with the new cars, with the new challenge. And for sure, this will may be very interesting on him. If he will decide a different way around, I mean, the news is that in Formula 1, we have so many good drivers today that at least the challenge will be even stronger. Therefore, of course, whatever will be the decision of Lewis, we will respect, but Formula 1 is really solid and strong. With regard to Miami with the American drivers, it is important, the answer for me is very clear, it's yes. We have -- we are working with teams that try to understand what is really the possibility for American driver to come to the attention of Formula 1 team in the short term. This could come. I don't see that being very pragmatic and realistic coming in the next 2, 3 years, but maybe after, yes. I know that there are teams watching the good drivers, that if they are ready will be a big boost for the American fans because as we know, faces, drivers, they put the enthusiasm, passion that people want to see these guys. And therefore, the hope that we have is that very, very soon, we have an American drivers competing against all the others in the Formula 1 champion.

So we will now take our next question from Bryan at Deutsche Bank.

Would you be willing to size the onetime settlement impact on the first quarter Formula 1 revenue for us? And then separately, it's great to see Miami on the calendar next year. I know it's something you've been working on for 3 or 4 years. What can you tell us about your plans for the event, maybe contrasted to Austin? And how significant do you think it will be for growing the sport in the U.S.? And related to that, your broadcast contract with ESPN is up for renewal, I believe, after next season. So how are you thinking about the opportunity with ESPN given their focus on ESPN+ with now Miami in the calendar and also just the general progress you've made so far in growing in the U.S.

So I'll let Brian talk about onetime events in the first quarter revenue. And then I want to weigh a little on ESPN, and I'll let Stefano as well. But Brian start.

Yes. As it relates to the settlement, we can't comment on the specific details, but it did impact our results. But obviously, when you look at the year-over-year results, the fact that we had the 1 race versus 0 last year and the proportion of revenue recognition was the material driver of that, but we can't comment on the specific related to settlement.

On the issue of the U.S. and ESPN, look, when we put that up among the various broadcasters and alternatives a little over a year ago, Chase, and it was in total agreement, had the belief that we were going to grow in popularity in the U.S. and our hand would be strengthened. So due to both now doing Miami and doing Drive to Survive and all the other things that we have going on from fan festivals to digital engagement, all of those are building our interest in the U.S. And as Stefano noted, and many groups that heretofore have not been interested. I have people coming up to me who are saying, I'm obsessed with Formula 1 because of the Drive to Survive, who were not our typical audience, women, teenagers, many different kinds of audiences that are expanding, which is great. When we did that, we took a shorter deal with ESPN that had a broader set of exposure for us in terms of their eyeballs, but it was not the highest current deal we can get. And it was not the longest deal we could get. And in fact, it was the opposite. It was the least amount of money. The most amount of eyeballs and the shortest period of time because our belief was that we would have a much stronger hand as we went forward among the various bidders. I think that is a good bet. It's one that we are winning. And all the reasons we -- I outlined before, I think we will be much strengthened when we go to renew against that ESPN and other alternatives. Stefano, what might you add?

Yes, absolutely. Again, I think that the good news is that we are talking about another race in U.S. in Miami with different culture, with different philosophy, with different way that we're going to structure the show around it. And the incredible news that -- in just a couple of weeks after our announcement, the attention with regard to this event is really massive. And the expectation of getting at the level that we want. And this is the reason why we are building a good series of communication, good series of program in terms of communication with the American community because we want to maximize everything out of it. And I can anticipate, for example, one thing that it would be fantastic. We're going to share with the stadium of Miami Gardens and with Miami Dolphins, the races in Monaco because they want to start living the atmosphere. And this will provide us the right platform in order to be ready, to make sure that the value that we're going to generate from U.S. will be even higher. And that's really the fundamental strategical thinking behind the fact that we're going to have to race in the United States.

So we will now take our next question from Vijay Evercore.

I have a couple of questions on Formula 1, primarily probably for Stefano. So when you see -- think about race promotions this year. Obviously, you have 23 races, but with or without fans and different proportions of fans, how should we think about that? Are you getting full promoter revenues? Are you splitting some of it based on fans? Or getting none and hosting the race? Any sort of thought because that's sort of the segment that has the most variability? And then we've been seeing a lot more press releases coming out on sponsorship on Formula 1 with your new sponsorship head. Is there a resurgence on that? Or is this that sort of more like a formalized process of letting us know on what's going on because that seems to be probably one of the biggest growth drivers for the business long term. And finally, one for Greg. Maybe it's a little premature, but Formula 1 becomes an ATB in Jan next year. And you'll have Brave with an ATB. Any thoughts on what structurally you could do or would we like to do? If you can share.

Thank you, Vijay. I mean the first question related to the fact that, of course, we have a situation that is evolving with regard to the attendances of the people on track. Greg has already mentioned, the thing is that we need to monitor race by race, case by case. Of course, the more we going ahead and the more it's likely that the opening up to the fans will not have a direct effect on the revenues. But we have -- also content that we cannot get into details where we do respect that the attendance of the people has no influence on what would be the effect on our earnings. So this is really a mixed situation, but we need to evolve and manage it. I didn't get the question with regard to the sponsorship, Vijay, can you repeat that for me, please?

Yes, Stefano, I mean there's been a lot of announcements, Zoom and bunch of other sponsors you've announced more recently. I'm just trying to understand, is there sort of a resurgent in sponsorship in Formula 1 more recently? Or is it sort of just better disclosure for us on...

No. It's just to show -- yes, it's just to show the fact that the interest to Formula 1 is getting back again at the level that we really believed is the right one. So the fact that despite the pandemic situation, there are big companies that are willing to engage and be our partner is a great sign of trust of what we are building as the future. And we need to expect this approach even stronger in the future.

And as far as structural changes. We have no plan or intent today. Obviously, having a second ATB today, the only ATB we have at Liberty Media is the Braves, having a second ATB gives us flexibility if we want to create other spins, but we have no plans today.

We will now take our next question from David at JPMorgan.

On F1, we've seen Disney move to shut down and Star Sports channels in parts of Asia. Just kind of interested to know how this impacts you first directly as I believe they carry the series, but at a higher level, how you think this pivot to streaming will impact demand for sports content in some of those regions? And then maybe just separately, Stefano, as you noted, viewership seems to be at a nice uptick through the races so far. Would be interested to get your thoughts on how much you attribute this to the Red Bull, Mercedes dynamic versus kind of the actions that you've taken off the track like Drive to Survive, like the social media outreach?

Well, if I may start on the second, David, it's clear that the better show is better engagement and better entertainment for the people, there's no doubt. But the thing is that is one element. The other element is the fact that we really are engaging with more people that are in love with Formula 1. Therefore, the fact that we are able to attract other people through different way of languages that we're not used to use before, I think it's also helping the fact that the viewership and the engagement in any case and we're talking about not only the TV, we are talking about social media platform and other element of OTT is showing that there is a lot of attention, there's a lot of interest. For sure, what is happening on the track is very, very important. There's no doubt about it. And this is for sure a good sign for us.

I would totally agree. But Stefano, why don't you comment on the rest of it and then I'll add. First part.

Sorry, Greg, the line went dead on my side.

David, you want to repeat your question because I don't think we cover everything.

Sure. Yes. Sure. The question was about Disney and their move to shut down Star Sports. I think in parts of Asia, just wondering how that impacts you directly and then just your higher level thoughts on pivot to streaming and kind of what that means for demand.

So Stefano, why don't you start commenting, and then I'll give you -- I may have some views. Thank you.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you. I mean, David, we have, of course, as you know, agreement in place. So we are expecting for that to be totally enforced. So we don't see that as a problem. We see actually a big opportunity to the growth of the TV and the engagement figure in that part of the world to find other solution that we are working on, of course. But on this year financially, we don't expect anything that would happen.

So I think more broadly, if you think about it, more platforms is a positive for us. And yes, there -- some of the legacy platforms may decline or even be eliminated. But in general, we're seeing new platforms created, that's an opportunity. It's just the way that here in the United States, when satellite came and eventually when Fios and other fiber alternatives came that created upwards pressure on content costs because of the bidding. I think we'll see the same opportunity in what we do worldwide at Formula 1. As usual, we'll have a trade-off on exposure, which free TV offers against, in many cases, higher short-term rates for either over-the-top platforms or even more streaming platforms over -- excuse me, platforms like satellite or streaming platforms. And we'll weigh our total dollars available against the exposure that we get for things like generally promoter value and advertising and sponsorship. So I'm not so worried about these sort of slower growth platforms being cut out by people like Disney, I'm much more excited about the opportunity from the digital platforms, particularly as they gain scale.

We will now take our next question from David Beckel at Berenberg.

I have 2 on F1. Just wanted to talk a little bit about the Sprint race format, maybe get a little bit of the thinking behind that. It obviously adds incremental value to your partners, but more specifically as it relates to future economics Do you expect this to add to the value you receive from your partners? Or is it more a part of just adding value to existing agreements? And then secondarily, going back to the U.S. market and with the TV deal in play in a few years, I'm sure you paid attention to what WWE did with Peacock. I'm wondering if there's potential to sort of leverage the F1 TV over-the-top platform in a way that can sort of augment the broader value of your U.S. broadcast and overall TV distribution rights.

Thank you, David. I mean, with regard to the Sprint format, I think it will be beneficial to everyone. And if I have to answer straight away to the last part of the question, of course, we expect to have more value out of it. First of all, there is action that will be very, very positive in terms of effect to the organizer because from Friday to Saturday, to Sunday there is something to talk about, a lot of action, a lot of intensity. That is something that, of course, this will have a direct effect on the people that will attend to the race. And this has been welcomed by all the organizers in a very positive way. On top of it, of course, that's something that we are offering to our media partners because we can create a new content. We can generate other form of entertainment in adding a new format that has been never deployed before. And also to the partners that have the chance to -- and the privilege to be in the grid for 2 times also on Saturday, even if the formula will be different, of course, because the center of the weekend will be the race on Sunday. But this is something that we believe that will have also an impact on the financial point of view on top of adding the excitement of what is racing is all about. With regard to the market, the TV deal and the leverage related to all our tools, I -- we believe that this will enable us to discuss in the future even a different way of integrating our actively OTT platform that is going very, very well in the future. And therefore, that will allow us to benefit from the fact that the market will be interested in our sport and the commitment will be very, very big on our side to make sure that this will happen.

Yes. If I could add to what Stefano said on that, I think we certainly watch what WWE did with Peacock, and I think it's somewhat indicative with a longer-term trend. Very few sports, I believe, have enough content to run their own over-the-top service as their primary vehicle. There's just not enough content. If you look at WWE, they have tonnage certainly compared to us. And so F1 TV is a great asset for our -- for connectivity with fans and for connectivity, in particular, with our most hard core fans, but I don't believe it's a plans, our traditional broadcasters or other over-the-top broadcasters who are looking for a broader set of content and relationships. So I think we certainly watch that, and it's consistent with our view. And I do believe we'll see that kind of opportunity with larger digital platforms and F1 TV can be a part of the solution with them, as you know.

We will now take our next question from David Joyce at Barclays.

Two topics. One is just another clarification on the promotion. When you say it was one time, does that mean it was just one promoter or are there any others lingering out there? And was it within the range of a typical promotion fee. And then secondly, on sponsorship, how should we think about the range of sponsorship types of contracts? Like how many are based solely on particular races versus the proportion of revenue that is really allocated across the season? And are there any other types of sponsorship structures?

I can do the promoter piece. It was one race, and that's disclosed in our earnings release as it relates to the typical range of a promoter agreement, we have a wide range. So it falls within that range, yes.

So David, with regard to the sponsorship, the range, of course, depends on what is the package that we have. We have official partner, and we have other kind of relationship and all are related to really the rights that they're going to have. And so we have different packages that are all consistent with the season with the old and top championship and not related to the single event itself.

We will now take our next question from John at Gabelli.

Switching gears, sports gambling is hot. You probably saw, I think, DraftKings, Sling and so on. What are the benefits you might see from your RSN with Sinclair or Bally as it is now. Is there anything that could actually help you?

John, I'll take a shot at that. I think that those benefits are going to be secondary, not primary. They'll have increased fan engagement. There may be -- Georgia is soon to open. It appears, gambling will become legal in the near term in Georgia, it's not today. But it has been on the ballot and it looks fairly favorably inclined in the next -- in the coming cycles. I think that will provide us some marginal revenue opportunities there, but I don't view it as a huge revenue line for us directly. I view it secondarily, you'd be interested if we and baseball MLB can capitalize on that more broadly, I think it just continues to draw off the fans, not clear that it's revenue line on the P&L directly.

And just as a second broader question on sports, you've probably seen some of the disruption in England where the fans became engaged in...

About -- around the Super League you're saying?

Yes. And just generally, a fair amount of disruption there, lot of talk of PE companies buying into Serie A, nothing happening. Is that an area where you might see some opportunities? Or is the fact that a soccer team can be relegated just makes it too risky?

No. John, we have looked at as many of those opportunities we can possibly find. We do think it's interesting. We can debate what's going on at each of the various leagues and where they stand in terms of their cycles on likely broadcast revenue and other kinds of opportunities. We do look to our experience both at Formula 1 and the Braves. And what we'd like to think we have done positively with the league at Formula 1 and what we'd like to think we've done positively around things like Truist and the Battery and think about how we can apply the skill sets that are inside Liberty at various opportunities. And we tried to sell that we have been a good and long-term strong owner perhaps different than some of the other Americans have been perceived or how PE has been perceived. We haven't yet found the intersection of where somebody wants us and we want them, but we continue to look. And I do think that disruption over there does create opportunity. We have gone through -- we watch with Super League with interest because before we were involved with Formula 1, there was certainly the talk of a breakaway at Formula 1, which did not come to pass. And we feel very confident. We understand breakaway very well, and I think we pretty much eliminated that opportunity or potential at Formula 1 as a side note.

So we will now take our final question for today's conference from Matthew at Benchmark.

Even apart from Max Verstappen literally banging wheels with Lewis Hamilton, always seem relatively cordial off the track, you probably had the most competitive season since I think 2012, Ferrari is coming back. McLaren Lando Norris, et cetera. And I was just curious, you've got a broad suite of changes coming next year on -- to make the competition on the track more competitive. Does it give you any pause that you're making a lot of revisions next year even if this year seemingly is proceeding so strong right out of the gates? And do you have any ability to reassess any of this or you just continue to roll along?

Matthew, the changes has been already discussed. The teams are already working on new cars and new regulation. And the train has already left the station. So we are very pleased because we are convinced that this year is already a great season, but next year with the changes that has been planned will be another great opportunity to showcase what is Formula 1 in terms of the ability of always keeping the attention at the center. And therefore, there's no other things but checking everything in terms of all the details to make sure that the changes that will be massive on the cars next year will highlight the possibility to have a bigger fight, not only 2 or 3 drivers, but even more, and that's the objective.

Yes, if I could add just -- look, we're lucky this season is great. The work that was done in the concrete agreement by Chase and Ross Brawn and others. We hope to only increase the competitive next year. And we're very excited as Stefano noted about what's going on now and even more excited about what we can do in the coming years. I think with that, operator, we are done for the day. Thank you very much to all of you listening out there for your interest in Liberty, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter, if not sooner.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.