Liberty Media Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Liberty Media Corporation 2021 Q4 earnings call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a Q&A session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded February 25th. I would now like to turn the conference over to Courtney Chun, Chief portfolio officer, please go ahead.

Good morning. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone 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 form, 10-K and 10-Q, or Liberty Media Acquisitions 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'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 OIDDA and adjusted EBITDA. The required definitions and reconciliations for Liberty Media and SiriusXM Schedules 1 and 2 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, Courtney, and good morning to all of you. Today, speaking on the call, we will also have Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, and Liberty's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wendling. So beginning with Liberty Sirius Special Dividend, we expect our share of those to be about $770 million, net of a pass-through to bondholders. We did continue during the quarter repurchasing shares, buying back $189 million across LSXMA and LSXMK shares from November through January. As you know, the discount remains and we therefore were able to repurchase our shares at a look-through price on CERI of just over $4. We will continue to take advantage of the discount opportunity. We also settled the exchange of our two and a quarter live nation exchangeables in January for consideration of $664 million using cash and some margin loan draws. Looking at the underlying business CERI SXM, they recorded record results for the year, record high subs, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA. and I also experienced the fifth straight year of improving churn. New car penetration is up to 82% from 78% in the prior year, and we launched 360L in more than 30 new vehicle models across various OEMs in 2021. Now more than 25% of SiriusXM-equipped vehicles sold in the fourth quarter incorporated our new 360L opportunities. We also teamed up with Apple and Discovery during the quarter, adding 12-month subscriptions to Apple Music and Discovery Plus for new and existing Platinum VIP plan subscribers. We introduced Audio ID powered by AdsWiz, a listener identity solution enabling marketers to reach and connect with consumers at scale. Stitcher went live with distribution and monetization of popular Crime Junkie podcast in January. We launched new exclusive artist channels including Alicia Keys, David Bowie and Neil Young. And we had small stage series of intimate live performances, which featured premier artists spanning music generations, including Ed Sheeran, the Go-Go's, Her, J. Cole, and John Mayer and more. So a busy quarter. At Live Nation, a great quarter as well. Fan attendance at outdoor events in the U.S. and U.K. in the last five months of 2021 was up 25% versus the same period in 2019. On-site spend, the per cap continues to grow at a double-digit rate versus 2019. And ticket sales in October, November, and December were the top three months ever in terms of GDP. We have expanded our venue portfolio as well, adding 31 new venues in 2021, half through the assessor acquisition. Every leading indicator in the business points to a record 2022. Confirmed show count through February is up 30% versus 2019. We've sold 45 million tickets for shows this year already, and no show rates are back down to their 2019 levels. Live Nation is entering its strongest multi-year growth chapter in a concert history. Looking at the Formula One group, on the corporate side, we effectively repurchased 2.2 million FWANA and FWAN-K shares at an average per share price of 58.59. That included both FWANA share repurchases and an effective share repurchase of FWANC shares due to the purchase of the underlying 64 million of FWANC cash convert that we bought. And now let me turn to F1 and first address the circumstances in Russia. I'm sure you saw our statement this morning. As we said, we are watching the situation with sadness and shock. And it's impossible to hold the Russian GP in the current circumstances. Turning back now to 2021, what a cliffhanger ending to a thrilling season. And since then, we've had a month of announcements coming out of F1 with more to come. Fans are attending and tuning in. Even with COVID affecting a good chunk of the season, we saw very strong attendance. And tuning across many platforms, 1.55 billion of cumulative TV viewers, with the highest race viewership being 109 million in Abu Dhabi, which rivals that of the Super Bowl. Average attendance was up 14% on like-for-like races. And once again, we saw great growth in social media followers, making F1, once again, the fastest growing major sport on social media. We signed numerous race renewals at desirable locations, showing continued strength in our contracted revenue, and we continue to further our sustainability initiatives. F1 came in at number two of 102 global motorsport championships evaluated by the FIA on a sustainable championship index, ahead of many such as Xtreme, MotoGP, and NASCAR. We are ready to kick off our record-breaking 23 race, 22 season, and we hope to see you at some, if not all, of the races this year. Turning down to the Braves, we capped off an incredible 2021 with our World Series title. But in addition to that, we had 239 home runs, which ranked second in the National League. We had a 3.88 ERA, which was second best in the NLEs, and there are too many player accolades to even name. The World Series Trophy Tour will visit 151 stops celebrating the 151 seasons of Braves baseball. And we will start 2022 with the highest number of season ticket holders in 22 seasons since 2000. We are sold out of our premium seats for the first time in Truist Park history, including all the suites, the premium seats including all the suites. And Truist Park will hold five stadium concerts in 2022, its highest ever. TK Tower and Innovation Center grand opening took place on February 9th, and in 2021, the Battery had close to 9 million visitors, including 330,000 during the three World Series games. We also did close on the sale of the minor league teams in January. The geographic alignment of the teams is important, and the major league reorg of minor league last year ensured that this will continue. The teams do remain affiliates for future player development. Let me just address the CBA for one moment. We are certainly aware of the latest developments in our discussions with Braves management, but are obviously prohibited from commenting any further. We continue to review opportunities for LMAAC to SPAC. As I've said before, we do believe that turbulence in the SPAC market has made deals more difficult, but actually will benefit Liberty and our strength. And with that, let me turn it over to Brian for more financial results.