Liberty Formula One Group (FWONA) Q1 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

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Liberty Formula One Group (FWONA)
Q1 2021 Earnings Call
May 7, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Liberty Media Corporation 2021 Q1 Earnings Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Courtnee Chun, Chief Portfolio Officer. Please go ahead.

Courtnee Chun -- Chief Portfolio Officer

Thank you. Before we begin, we would 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's Form 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 Corporation's 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 measures for Liberty Media and SiriusXM including adjusted OIBDA and adjusted EBITDA. The required definitions and reconciliations for Liberty Media and SiriusXM's 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.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Courtnee and good morning to all of you out there. Today speaking in the call, besides myself, we have Formula One'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 $114 million across LSXMA/K shares from February through April. The discount stubbornly remains and we repurchased at a look-through price on 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 are 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 two-thirds of online audio listeners. We're also continuing at SiriusXM our expansion into 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 and 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 going on tour and the Railbird festival with headliner David Matthews Band is another notable addition. Following up on acquiring the majority in stake in Veeps, we've begun our ticket live platform and started equipping 60 plus concert 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 One 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 Constructors Championship, so lots 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 two more of those during the rest of the season. Drive to Survive, our programing on Netflix continues to grow in popularity in its third season and it's also getting recognized on the Award Circuits, both in US 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, a game and a half out of first place. We were helped by sweeping the Nats over the last three games. Braves are Number 1 in home runs this season, and also Number 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 nationally player of the month for April. Pablo Sandoval hit three pinch-hit home runs in April, the most by any Braves player in a calendar month 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. Fans who get vaccinated in those games will receive two free tickets to future Braves games as well. And finally, the Braves looking at the Battery [Indecipherable] 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 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 LMAC to SPAC. The SPAC market has changed in a 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.

With that I'd like to turn it over to Brian to discuss our financial results in a little more detail.

Brian J. Wendling -- Chief Accounting Officer & Principal Financial Officer

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 One Group $384 million to settle the Live Nation call spread in April. The settlement of the Live Nation call spread was a non-taxable 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. As of May 6, the value of the SiriusXM stock held by Liberty SiriusXM Group was nearly $19 billion and the value of the Live Nation stock held was $5 billion. We have $3.2 billion in principal amount of debt against these holdings. Total Liberty SiriusXM Group attributed principal amount of debt is $13.2 billion, which includes $9 billion of debt held directly at SiriusXM.

Formula One 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 One Group received the additional $384 million that we just discussed in proceeds related to the Live Nation call spread. Total Formula One 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 three 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 relate 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 12/31/20 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 our debt covenants at quarter end.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Stefano to discuss Formula One.

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

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 second race in US in Miami Gardens, with a huge and positive reaction from our fans, the teams and all our partners. Having the second race in US 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 kilometers pre-qualifying formats, our three 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 teams 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 these events. We have announced the three years extension of the Japanese Grand Prix. This has always been an important race for Formula One and we cannot wait for the fans to cheer on their own [Indecipherable]. We have extended our partnership with the Canadian Grand Prix by two years and welcome the new announcement last week by Bell Media as entering 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 still fluid due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula One has shown that it 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 race in the calendar for 2021. It is very exciting to see the level of interest from both the new and historic location to host a Grand Prix and this gives us possible option if required for 2021, but also good opportunities for the future. We have had very good conversations with all our promoters, and all of whom expect their 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 two 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 off our 23 race season in Bahrain and have had three races to date with close battles, overtaking and the pack closer together that in the recent years. Ross Brawn has mentioned with this battle for the championship playing out, this could be a golden year for Formula One. The season opening in Bahrain did not disappoint with Verstappen securing pole position. It was a free 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 his first F1 race for AlphaTauri and he looks like he has a promising career ahead.

The battle for first continuing [Indecipherable] where Max had an amazing start of the line in the rain and carried through for the win, impressive given his starting third behind his new teammate Sergio Perez. Lando Norris made up for a mistake in qualifying and secured his spot on the podium showing the continued strength of McLaren. Last weekend, at Portugal, Mercedes fended off a stern challenge from Red Bull as Lewis Hamilton clinched a hard fought victory in Portugal. With both Verstappen on pole and Lewis ahead and Verstappen in second, the start of the race saw the Red Bull get past the Mercedes of Hamilton before the seven time champion pull it off three minutes overtakes both his teammates and also Verstappen to clinch victory. It once again shows that there is a real battle under way for this year title and we are only the three 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 mix still have something to prove and it is great to see Ferrari keeping its fight again.

The spectrum of Formula One is resonating with fans and engagement is very high. To-date, we have data for the first two races across the 24 principal markets we monitor and this shows TV viewership growth over both 2020 and 2019, with particular strength in Italy, the Netherlands, France, the UK, the US and Spain. On the digital front, unique users for F1 web and app have been up 77% on the equivalent rates in 2020 and social engagement and also increased with over 30 million interaction in both of the first two race week. We continue to grow our social media following, reaching 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 a record viewing, peak concurrent viewers each race weekend are around three times higher than the 2020 season average and engagement measured by the minutes viewed over the course of the weekend is up more than 60% from the last year. We launched an updated version of the app for the season that provides many additional features including high video quality and allows fans to control the viewing experience. This new version also makes it easier to find content in our 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 Liberty FI 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 Number 1 on Netflix in 27 different countries and also globally. And on almost daily basis we hear anecdotes about how this show was brought into new non-typical fans. It was great to revisit the 2020 season and see the best story of the virality of many drivers changes. I do highly recommend the episode nine, which is terrifying, exhilarating and inspiring. The show was nominated for a Sports Emmy for outstanding series sport documentary and made the short-list in the documentary category for UK Broadcast Awards.

Heading to the season, we have had numerous sponsorship announcement. We were pleased to renew our global partnership with DHL, our relationship which now spans across several decades. These extended partnership will include enhanced involvement in F1 Esports series and operation of F1 digital channels. As official partner, we welcomed Zoom, Mercedes, Aston Martin as safety car provider and Ferrari claims the official toast of Formula One. In addition, we announced [Indecipherable] official supplier and welcomed Global Citizen as charity partner for our We Race As One initiative. We continued to engage fans to Esports and have the very successful series of visual Grand Prix during the offseason. 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 One, as part of our We Race As One initiatives, we announced a team only qualification route for the F1 Esport series pro championship. This is our first female only competition and we hope it will encourage more drivers from the passionate and the talented females in racing community with the goal of becoming the first ever female driver to be signed by an official F1 Esports Series team.

In closing, Formula One 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 One for their continued diligence and hard work and I hope you will watch the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.

Now I turn the call back over to you, Greg. Thank you very much.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]

So, we will now take our first question from Jeff at Pivotal Research. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Jeff -- Pivotal Research -- Analyst

Good morning. I had one on SIRI and one on Formula One. Greg, at 77.3% ownership stake in SIRI, all else being equal, you're probably going to crossover to 80% plus in the third quarter, your dividends going 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. Thanks.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I'll take the SIRI and I'll let Stefano speak to the cost cap. On SIRI, look 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 in one of those two 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 dividend to continue to go after the discount at SIRI as LSXMA rather at SIRI to increase the dividend or potentially delve 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 at the same result, which is we are going after the discount and whether it's their -- through their dividend increasing or selling of the buyback, we will be attacking the discount. Stefano, let me turn it to you about the cost cap.

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Greg. I mean, Jeff, as you know, cost cap has been one of the most important significant things that Formula One introduced this year. This has been the fact, 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 and supporting Formula One and I think that if I see what is happening around the world that everyone is focused just on the revenue side, I think that Formula One has just started the part of this 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 the exit for the future, but we are pretty sure that these are also the problems of the team, which has been a huge step in making sure that the Formula is sustainable for its future.

Jeff -- Pivotal Research -- Analyst

All right, thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Ben at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Ben -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Hi, good morning, Greg, just on the cash balance at Liberty Formula One, I think it's a $1.8 billion 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're 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 just rethink 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 US market as well, is an American driver important in F1 in terms of driving popularity here in the US and do you have any expectations that we might see one anytime soon? Thank you.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So on the cash at Formula One really at the Holdco level, flow on level, I think -- a couple of things, first of all, we put that cash in place to ensure the health of the whole ecosystem, not only the Formula One 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 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 LMAC to SPAC that at least $250 million would go toward 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.

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

If I may now Greg, Dan to the question related to the drivers. With regards to Lewis Hamilton. Sure Lewis Hamilton is a great asset. He is doing an incredible job on the sporting side in term of image, he was able to grow the Formula One in other areas where not really specifically related to Formula One. But Formula One 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 it's focus on these actual season is fully boosted to make sure that he will be the only driver if is he going to win eight titles in the history of Formula One, but Formula One is solid and robust and for sure, whatever is the decision of Lewis, Formula One will react and we will move forward. The good news is that, it's Lewis, as we all hope will stay, will have an incredible season in front of him with the new cars, with a new challenge and for sure this will may be very interesting for him. If he will decide a different way around, I mean the good news is that in Formula One, we had so many good drivers today that at least the challenge and the chance will be even stronger. Therefore, of course, whatever will be the decision of Lewis, we will respect but Formula One is really solid and strong. With regards to Miami with the American drivers, it is important, the answer for me is very clear, is yes. We are working with teams and try to understand what is really the possibility for American driver to come to the attention of Formula One team in the short term. This could come. I don't see that being very pragmatic or realistic coming in the next two, three years, but maybe after years. I know that there are teams watching that the good drivers that if they're ready would be a big boost for the American fans, because as we know, fast drivers, they put enthusiasm, passion that people want to see these guys and therefore the hope that we have is that very, very soon we will have American drivers competing against all the others in the Formula One championship.

Ben -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. So we'll now take our next question from Bryan at Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Bryan -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. Would you be willing to size the one-time settlement impact on the first quarter Formula One 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 three or four years. What can you tell us about your plans for the event, maybe contrast it to Austin and how significant do you think it will be for growing the sport in the US 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 Plus, with now Miami in the calendar and also just the general progress you've made so far in growing in the US? Thanks.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So, I'll let Brian talk about one-time 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.

Brian J. Wendling -- Chief Accounting Officer & Principal Financial Officer

Yeah. 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've had the one race versus zero last year and the proportionate revenue recognition was the material driver of that, but we can't comment on the specifics related to settlement.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

On the issue about the -- on the issue of the US and ESPN, when we put that up among the various broadcasters and alternatives, a little over a year ago, Chase and I, was in total agreement, had the belief that we were going to grow in popularity in the US 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 US. And as Stefano noted, in many groups that here before have not been interested, I have people coming up to me who say, I'm obsessed with Formula One because of 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 could 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?

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, absolutely, Greg. And I think that the good news is that we are talking about another race in US Miami with different culture, with a different philosophy, with a 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 the level that we want, and this is the reason why we are building a good series of communication, a good series of program and telecommunication with the American community because we want to maximize everything out of it. And I cannot anticipate, for example, one thing that it would be fantastic, we're going to share with the stadium of Miami Gardens and with the Miami Dolphins, the race in Monaco because they want to start leaving their 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 the US would 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.

Bryan -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. So we'll now take our next question from Vijay at Evercore. Please go ahead.

Vijay -- Evercore -- Analyst

Hi. Good morning. So I have a couple of questions on Formula One, primarily probably for Stefano. So when we see -- think about 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 non and hosting the races out? Any 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 One with the new sponsorship heads. Is there a resurgence on that or is 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 longer term. And finally one for Greg. Maybe a little premature, but Formula One becomes an ATB in Jan next year, and you'll have Braves as an ATB. Any thoughts on what structurally you could do, or would like to do that you can share? Thanks.

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

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 in track. And Greg has already mentioned, the things that we need to monitor race by race, case by case, of course, the more we're 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 counted that we cannot get into the page where with due respect the attendance of people has no influence on what would be the effect on our -- 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?

Vijay -- Evercore -- Analyst

Yes, Stefano, there has been a lot of announcements, Zoom and a bunch of other sponsors you've announced more recently. I'm just trying to understand, is there sort of a resurgence in sponsorship in Formula One more recently? Or is it sort of just better disclosure for us on [Speech Overlap]

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

No. It is just to show the fact that the interest to Formula One is getting back again at the level that we really believe 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 on what we're building as the future. And we need to expect this approach even stronger in the future.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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.

Vijay -- Evercore -- Analyst

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question from David at J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

David -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Hi. Thank you. On F1, we've seen Disney moved to shut down on 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 then 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 a nice uptick through the races so far. We'd 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 social media outreach?

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Well, if I may start from the second, David, it's clear that the better show is better engagement and better entertainment for the people, there is 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 in love with Formula One. Therefore the fact that we are able to attract other people through different way of languages that we are not used to before, I think is 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 platforms and elements like OTT is showing that there is a lot of attention, a lot of interest. For sure, what is happening on the track is very, very important, there is no doubt about it. And this is for sure a good sign for us.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Sorry, Greg. The line went off on my side.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Maybe you want to repeat your question because I don't think cover.

David -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Sure. The question was about Disney and their move to shutdown 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.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

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 forced. So we don't see that as a problem. We see actually a big opportunity to the growth of the TV and the engagements figure in that part of the world to find other solutions that we are working on of course but on this year financial we don't expect anything that will happen.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So I think more broadly if you think about it. More platforms is a positive for us, and yes some of the legacy platforms may decline or even be eliminated. But in general, we're seeing new platforms created that's an opportunity, just the way that here in the United States when Satellite came and eventually when files 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 One. As usual, have a trade-off on exposure which freight TV offers against in many cases higher short-term rates for either over-the-top platforms or even more streaming platforms over the 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 on the digital platforms, particularly as they gain scale.

David -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question from David Beckel at Berenberg. Please go ahead.

David Beckel -- Berenberg -- Analyst

Thanks a lot. Great thanks. Two on F1. I 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 received from your partners or is it more part of just adding value to existing agreements. And then secondarily, going back to the US 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 is 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 US broadcast and overall TV distribution rights?

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, David. I mean with regard to the Sprint format. I think it will be beneficial to everyone. And if I had 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 some of the factor to be organized 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 dilutive effect on the people that will attempt the race and this has been welcomed by all the organizer in a very positive way. On top of this, of course, that's something that we are offering to our media partners because we create the new concepts, 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 -- the previous to be in the grid for two times also in Saturday, even if the promo 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 racing is all about. With regard to the US market, the TV deal and the leverage related to all our tools, we believe that this will enable us to discuss in the future even a different way of integrating our active 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.

Brian J. Wendling -- Chief Accounting Officer & Principal Financial Officer

Yeah, if I could add to what Stefano said on that, I think we certainly watch WWE did with Peacock and I think it's somewhat indicative of the 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 and if you look at WWE, they have tonnage, certainly compared to us. And so, F1 TV is a great asset for connectivity with fans and for connectivity in particular with our most hardcore fans, but I don't believe it's a plan our traditional broadcasters or other over-the-top broadcasters who were looking for a broader set of content and relationships. So I think we certainly will watch 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.

David Beckel -- Berenberg -- Analyst

Great, Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question from David Joyce at Barclays. Please go ahead.

David Joyce -- Barclays -- Analyst

Thank you. 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? Thank you.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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 promoter agreement, we have a wide range. So it falls within that range, yes.

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

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 old and top championship and not related to the single event itself.

David Joyce -- Barclays -- Analyst

All right. Thank you.

Operator

We will now take our next question from John at Gabelli. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

John -- Gabelli -- Analyst

Hi, thank you. Switching gears, sports gambling is hot. Probably saw, I think, draft kings, slings and so on. What are the benefits you might see from your RSM with [Indecipherable] as it is now. Is there anything that could actually help you?

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

John, I'll take a shot at that. I think that those benefits are going to be secondary and not primary. You'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 of the interest. And if we and baseball, MLB can capitalize on that more broadly, I think it just continues to draw the fans, not clear that -- no revenue line on the P&L directly.

John -- Gabelli -- Analyst

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 --

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Around the Super League you're saying?

John -- Gabelli -- Analyst

Yes. Just generally, a fair amount of disruption there, a 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 the soccer team can be relegated just makes it too risky.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

No. John, we have looked at as many of those opportunities we can possibly find. We do think it's interesting. We do 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 One and the Braves and what we'd like to think we have done positively with the league at Formula One 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 try 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 One, there was certainly the talk of a breakaway at Formula One, which did not come to pass. And we feel very confident we understand breakaways very well, and I think we pretty much eliminated that opportunity or potential at Formula One as a side note.

John -- Gabelli -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

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

Matthew -- Benchmark -- Analyst

Thank you. Even apart from Max Verstappen literally banging wheels with Lewis Hamilton, they seemed relatively course off track, you probably had the most competitive season since I think 2012, your Ferrari is coming back, McLaren, Lando Norris, etc. 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 thought 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 just continue to roll along?

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

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 One in terms of the ability of always keeping the attention at the center. And therefore, there's no other things about checking everything in terms of all the days to make sure that the changes that will be massive on the cars next year, we will highlight the possibility to have a bigger fight, not only two or three drivers, but even more, and that's the objective.

Matthew -- Benchmark -- Analyst

Thanks Stefano, really riveting. Thanks.

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

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.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 51 minutes

Call participants:

Courtnee Chun -- Chief Portfolio Officer

Gregory B. Maffei -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Brian J. Wendling -- Chief Accounting Officer & Principal Financial Officer

Stefano Domenicali -- President & Chief Executive Officer

Jeff -- Pivotal Research -- Analyst

Ben -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Bryan -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Vijay -- Evercore -- Analyst

David -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

David Beckel -- Berenberg -- Analyst

David Joyce -- Barclays -- Analyst

John -- Gabelli -- Analyst

Matthew -- Benchmark -- Analyst

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