Liberty Media Corporation

Welcome to Liberty Media Corporation's 2025 Third Quarter Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference will be recorded November 5th. I would now like to turn the call over to Shane Kleinstein, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. 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 the most recent forms 10-K and 10-Q filed by Liberty Media with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and Liberty Media expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Liberty Media'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, including adjusted OIBDA. The required definition and reconciliation for Liberty Media Schedule 1 can be found at the end of the earnings press release issued today, which is available on Liberty Media's website. Speaking on the call today, we have Liberty's President and CEO, Derek Chang, Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wenling, Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, MotoGP CEO, Carmelo Espaleta, and other members of management will be available for Q&A. With that, I'll turn the call over to Derek.

Thank you, Shane. Good morning. We are entering the end of the year on a high note. It has been an incredibly productive period for Liberty, and we have executed all the priorities we laid out at the beginning of the year. First, on our planned split-off of Liberty Live, we currently expect to complete the split-off on December 15th. The stock is expected to begin trading as a standalone asset-backed equity the following day. Our shareholder vote will be on December 5th. The split-off is expected to better highlight the value of our attractive position in Live Nation and asset-backed equity that we believe will benefit from enhanced trading dynamics. Looking now at our operating businesses, we continue to invest behind their sustained growth. These aren't just sports properties, they're global entertainment brands. With this broader evolution comes expanded commercial opportunities, to monetize a growing fan base with creativity and innovative leadership. Looking first at Formula One, we continue to build upon the commercial momentum we've seen all year. Just this morning, F1 renewed with their global partner Heineken in another multi-year deal. Underlying fundamentals are robust and support strong financial results this quarter and year-to-date despite having one fewer race. They have successfully accelerated renewal cycles across revenue streams. extending media rights agreements, and renewing multiple promoter partners on attractive terms. Across sponsorship and licensing, F1 has partnered with an increasing number of high-quality consumer names, including Hello Kitty, Pottery Barn, and more as they consistently bring the sport closer to today's multidimensional fan. Additionally, F1 signed a landmark distribution partnership with Apple in the U.S. that seeks to highlight the innovation of both global lifestyle brands and position us well for the next leg of growth in the U.S. market. Stefano will provide more detail on this shortly. Next, on MonerGP, we closed the acquisition on July 3rd and have been working diligently with their management team in supporting their strategic plan. We're fortunate to have the involvement of Chase Carey, Stefano Domenicali, and Sean Bratches. Sean, as many of you know, previously led the commercial operations at F1. The top priority that MotoGP has laid out last quarter remains enhancing the Grand Prix experience, expanding MotoGP's global footprint through capturing new fans and deepening engagement with existing fans, and scaling our sponsorship roster. We are also in the early days in identifying areas of partnership between Formula One and MotoGP, some of which are more back-end in nature around sharing best practices and some of which we believe will drive commercial upside in the future. We are developing our long-term plans for MotoGP's broader monetization opportunities, many of which will build upon growth initiatives already underway prior to Liberty's ownership. Their adjusted EBITDA performance year-to-date reflects on elevated costs as these investments are already being made with the associated revenue growth to come. We don't expect a material change in the investment cycle ahead, but we do anticipate continued growth in the cost base as they scale efforts to build commercial functions enhanced sponsorship capabilities, and more. We look forward to continuing to update you on our progress, and we'll have more to share on behalf of Liberty and our portfolio of companies at our investor day on November 20th, just before the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Before turning it to Brian, I want to also recognize and thank John Malone. I'm sure you all saw our press release last week, noting that John will be stepping down from the Liberty Media Board and assuming the role of Chairman Emeritus. And Dob Bennett, Liberty's longtime board member and former CEO, will be named chairman. On behalf of Dob and myself, as well as the entire Liberty board and management team, it has been a privilege working with and learning from John for over three decades in partnership. His indelible influence on the industry, our company, and us personally goes without saying. And I'm sure I speak on behalf of all of you in saying that we look forward to having John for our annual Q&A at Liberty's Investor Day in a few weeks. Now I'll turn it over to Brian for more on Liberty's financial results.

Thank you, Derek, and good morning, everyone. At quarter end, Formula One Group had attributed cash and liquid investments of $1.3 billion, which includes $571 million of cash at Formula One, $176 million of cash at MotoGP, and $78 million of cash at Quint. Total Formula One Group attributed principal amount of debt was $5.1 billion. at quarter end, which includes $3.4 billion of debt at F1, $1.2 billion of debt at MotoGP, which leaves $523 million at the corporate level. F1's $500 million revolver and MotoGP's Euro $100 million revolver both remain undrawn at quarter end. We refinanced MotoGP's debt in August shortly after closing. We priced approximately $230 million of a new term loan, A, denominated in US dollars, a new 800 million euro term loan, B, and a new 100 million dollar or multi-currency revolver, all at reduced rates, with future reductions in margin expected as the business delivers. This new capital structure reduces interest expense, extends our maturities, and presents a currency mix that better reflects the euro and US dollar exposure of the business. At F1, we obtained an incremental $850 million term loan B and an incremental $150 million term loan A in July to fund a portion of the MotoGP acquisition. At quarter end, F1 OPCO net leverage was 3.0 times down from the initial 3.3 times we gave as of 6-30 pro forma for the MotoGP acquisition. F1's covenant leverage was below the threshold of 3.75 times to trigger a permanent reduction and the term loan B margin to sell for plus 175 basis points. Interest will begin accruing at the lower rate promptly after earnings. MotoGP net leverage was 5.6 times. In the near term, we very much expect to deliver at both Formula One and MotoGP. Turning to the F1 business, I'll make a few brief remarks on the third quarter, but we'll focus on the year-to-date comparisons. A reminder that every quarter in 2025, luckily, we'll have incomparable race count and mix, which will impact quarterly comparisons. And our year-to-date 930 figures also have an inconsistent year-over-year race numbers and mix. The majority of the variability in Q3 year-over-year results is due to one fewer race held in the third quarter compared to the prior year period. Q3 25 held six races compared to seven races in Q3 24 with Singapore being included in the prior year, but not in the current period. Year-to-date, through the third quarter, F1 also had one fewer race, with Singapore included in the prior year period, but not in the current period. Despite one less race, the business is performing incredibly well, with revenue up 9% and adjusted OIVDA up 15%, and growth across all revenue streams. Sponsorship revenue continues to benefit from new partners and underlying growth and renewals in existing contracts. Media rights revenue increased due to underlying growth in contracts, strong revenue growth at F1 TV, and the one-time benefit of the F1 movie revenue in the second quarter. Race promotion revenue was down slightly as underlying growth in contracts nearly covered the impact of one fewer race in the period. Other revenue grew driven by higher hospitality revenue, including from Grand Prix Plaza, licensing revenue, and increased rates. Note that we operated the same number of paddock clubs in both current and prior year periods, given that the Singapore paddock club is operated by the local promoter. Adjusted OIVDA increased on a year-to-date basis as revenue growth continues to outpace increased expenses. Team payments were flat year-to-date as the impact of one fewer race was offset by expected higher team payments for the full year. Team payments as a percentage of pre-team share adjusted OIVDA were 61.5% for the full year 2024, as a reminder. And we continue to expect leverage against that 2024 percentage for the full year of 2025. A reminder that team payments are best analyzed on a full year basis due to quarterly fluctuations in the team payments as a percentage adjusted to wipe it up. Turning now quickly to MotoGP's results. As a reminder, we closed the MotoGP acquisition on July 3rd and began consolidating their results effective 7-1-25. Our financial results are presented on a pro forma basis in the release and in MD&A, as though the transaction occurred on January 1, 2024, and a trending schedule will be posted to our website after the 10Q is filed, including the results in US GAAP for the full year 2024 on a pro forma basis. Also note that our US GAAP reported results for MotoGP's revenue streams are more aligned to our current F1 reporting, with previously disclosed MotoGP commercial revenue updated to include only sponsorship with hospitality being moved into other revenue. The majority of MotoGP's revenue and costs are Euro-denominated, and as such are subject to translational impacts from foreign currency movements. In the following discussion of results, I'm going to focus on constant currency results. Similar to F1, I'll make brief remarks on the third quarter, but focus on year-to-date comparisons, as we believe that is the most appropriate way to analyze the business. Year-over-year comparisons are impacted by the mix of races, and generally MotoGP flyaway races carry higher costs, including freight, travel, and team fees. MotoGP held seven races in the third quarter of both this year and the prior year. Revenue declined in the third quarter as increased race promotion fees due to race mix and contractual uplifts was offset primarily by lower proportionate recognition of season-based income. with revenue from 7 out of 20 races recognized last year versus 7 out of 22 recognized this year. Year-to-date, MotoGP held 17 races compared to 15 races through the same period last year. Revenue grew across race promotion and media rights primarily due to the additional events held and contractual fee increases. Sponsorship was relatively flat as contractual uplifts were offset by the impact of race mix on certain sponsorship revenues. Other revenue also increased from growth in world superbike fees and an increase in hospitality revenue. Just avoid a decline year-to-date as the revenue increase was more than offset by higher costs of motorsport revenue due to a mix of races which drove increased freight and travel expenses as well as an increased SG&A due to higher personnel costs with strategic headcount increases to grow certain commercial functions, as Derek mentioned. Year-to-date results were also impacted by 2024, by 2024 benefiting from a bad debt reversal early in the year. Looking briefly at corporate and other results year-to-date, revenue was $266 million, which includes quint results, and approximately $19 million of rental income related to the Las Vegas Grand Prix Plaza. Corporate and other adjusted order loss was $7 million, and includes Grand Prix Plaza rental income, quint results, and corporate expenses. As a reminder, Quint's business is seasonal with the largest and most profitable events taking place in Q2 and Q4. And note that Quint's intergroup revenue from MotoGP beginning in July is now eliminated within our consolidated results. Turning to the Liberty Lab Group, there's attributed cash of $297 million. And on September 12th, the Liberty Lab Nation or Lab Nation Margin Loan was amended to extend the maturity date from 26 to 28. and reduced the spread from 2% to 1.875%. $400 million of the margin loan capacity is undrawn at quarter end. And as of November 4th, the value of the Live Nation stock held at Liberty Live Group was $10.5 billion, and we have $1.15 billion in principal amount of debt against these holdings. Liberty, Formula One, and MotoGP are all in compliance with their debt covenants at quarter end. And with that, I will turn it over to Stefano to discuss Formula One.

Thanks, Brian. What an incredible season we are wrapping up at Formula One with thrilling on-track action and all teams scoring points. Nine drivers from seven different teams have stood on the podium, highlighting our depth of talent in one of the most competitive seasons of the recent time. McLaren clings the Constructo Championship in Singapore and we are watching the continued battle for the Drivers' Championship as we head into the final stretch of the season. Our global fan base continues to grow, with exceptional engagement across the board. We have seen 5.8 million attendees throughout Mexico, up 4% relative to last year's 2024 record at this time. Since summer break, Monza welcomed around 370,000 fans over its race weekend, while Austin and Mexico each welcomed over 400,000 fans. We are also seeing record percentage of female and under 35 attendees, reflecting the growing and broadening appeal of F1 events. The Paddle Club have serviced nearly 36,000 race day guests through the end of the third quarter, up 8% from same point last year. The Paddle Club remains sold out for the remainder of the season, and yearly partners' requests for 2026 already signal robust demands ahead. Given the consistent sell-out trends at many races, we are looking to add structure in partnership with promoters to increase capacity in some markets in 2026 to accommodate pent-up demand. Engagement and reach across these platforms remain robust. We had a strong first half of the season with community viewership up 10% year-over-year across broadcast and digital platforms, and performance remained excellent into the third quarter. Nearly all races record the year-over-year live viewership growth in F1's top 15 markets. The sprint race format continues to draw fans, with each sprint this season showing year-over-year viewership growth. Viewership for YouTube by Lights increased over 20% as of the third quarter, and the majority of the audience is under 35. F1 is still the fastest-growing major sport on social field by both an exciting on-track season and increased cultural relevance globally, highlighted this quarterly with buzz around the F1 movie. Social media followers are up nearly 20% of the third quarter to 111 million, with notable growth on TikTok. the F1 movie, we were thrilled to announce that we are deepening our partnership with Apple as F1 News US broadcaster distributor in a five years deal beginning in 2026. This is a partnership between two iconic global brands with a shared passion for innovation, entertainment and technological excellence, as well as a very aligned customer demographic. We are working with Apple on an ambition plan to elevate how the sport is presented to U.S. fans through innovation on the broadcast feed, amplified across their vast ecosystem of products and services, whether streaming the race itself or showcasing content on Apple News, Apple Sport, Apple Music, Apple Maps, Apple Fitness, and more. Assured by the success of the FOMovie, absolute marketing and activation power coupled with its integrated ecosystem can have a significant multiplier effect on brand awareness. We look forward to sharing more with Apple in the coming months. Turning to other commercial updates, we continue to see competition for our exclusive rights and IP across revenue streams. We had another active quarter of media rights negotiations. We recently announced that Grupo Televisa has become our official broadcast partner in Mexico throughout 2028, and we are close to finalizing the remaining agreements required for territories where rights expire at the end of the season, including Japan, Latin America, and Pan-Asia. We are constantly innovating across both content and distribution to keep the fan engagement. F1TV is a strategic commerce store, not only for the flexible and dynamic ways we can distribute race content, but also the direct access it gives us to fan data and insights. We recently announced a new show, Passenger Princess, which aired on YouTube. The first episode featured George Russell and reached 1.5 million views within one week of release. This underscores our original content strategy, embedding F1 deeper into pop culture, reaching new audiences beyond race weekend, and strengthening our always-on approach to connect with fans. Turning to race promotion agreement, F1 has an active quarter. We renew Azerbaijan 2030, Monaco through 2035 and Austin through 2034. We are counting down to another unforgettable Las Vegas Grand Prix and are very pleased with the progress we have made this year. Congrats to the Vegas leadership team on the momentum. With a couple of weeks to go, we are pleased to say we are on track with our ticket sales targets. We have a full week of programming across Las Vegas kicking off on Wednesday and culminating on Saturday night with a very special two hours pre-grace show and post-race entertainment. On F1 sponsorship, we are finalizing out an incredible strong year. We sustain momentum and visibility into our 2026 pipeline and beyond. We continue to roll out new dimension of our partnership with LVMH, including French bloom and Vulcan tequila. Closer integration between our F1 Global and Vegas sponsorship team is also benefiting their commercial momentum with strengthening Vegas sponsorship coming from both renewal as well as new logos partnering this year. The growth across our other revenue stream is equally impressive, especially in licensing, as we continue scaling up our partnership announced early this year. We are also the new momentum group until 2030 to run the F1 Authentic website and supply F1 official licenses and show cars. We recently announced partnerships with Disney, Pottery Barn Teens, Pottery Barn Kids and Hello Kitty, all of which should be a long-tail benefit into next year. The announcement of our relocated F1 Academy product collaboration reached an outstanding 3.7 million fans over the three-day announcement period and increased our F1 Academy social media followers by 5,000 across all platforms on the day of our announcement. Trackside retail sales have grown over 20% through the third quarter. Looking ahead, we aim to continue growing our retail footprint of the track in key races locations. We opened a pop-up F1 hub store during race weekend in both Miami and Austin, as well as our Selfridges activation, where we celebrated F1 75 through historic and new merchandise lines. Strong sales and traffic reinforces the untapped opportunity in fun merchandising in this case location. Formula One momentum continues to span every part of our business. We have built a powerful platform that has enjoyed tremendous growth and we are increasingly confident in the continued upside ahead. We believe the groundwork we are laying today will continue to benefit our partners, shareholders, and most importantly, our fans. I look forward to providing more details on our sports and growth momentum at Liberties Investor Day and the F1 Business Summit in a few weeks. So for the moment, avanti tutta, full speed ahead. And now I will turn the call to Carmelo to discuss MotoGP.

Good morning and thank you, Stefano. We are four months into our partnership with Liberty Media and are planning to be working together to drive MotoGP forward for the benefit of our fans and partners. We continue to see many ways that we can benefit from Liberty and Formula One's expertise and have started collaboration on ways to work together. We look forward to sharing more of our strategy at Liberties Investors Day later this month. The 2025 MotoGP season continues to deliver exciting moments on track. Congratulations to Omar Márquez who secured his seventh MotoGP World Championship at the Japanese Grand Prix, keeping a remarkable multi-year comeback from injury and securing his place in MotoGP history. Despite Márquez's dominance this year, we have had 13 different riders on the podium across 10 teams and all five manufacturers. and in Moto2 and Moto3 we are wishing some of the highest racing in all motorsport from tomorrow's MotoGP stars. We continue to welcome record crowds across the calendar. This year we set attendance record at 8 different circuits. Attendance is up to 4% through the Malaysia and we expect another sold-out crowd in Valencia next week. We are building on the momentum from last year, brand refresh and our early investments are already yielding success. Social engagement is up to nearly 120% through the third quarters. Excluding video pass across our digital platforms has increased over 30% year over year. And our social reach has grown nearly 30% year over year, driving by TikTok. We look forward to hosting our second season launch event next year in Kuala Lumpur, which is another opportunity to provide content for fans outside of Rice Weekend. Average audience turning into our broadcast grill 17% through the third quarter, and we are seeing great viewership numbers from the Saturday sprint races, which are crossing the gap to Sunday race coverage and demonstrating the value for MotoGP Parma across the full race weekend. Subscribers to Videopass, our direct-to-consumer video services are up 6% from 2024. We have had positive renewals of a number of promotions relationships this year, including Japan through 2030 and Catalonia, Valencia, France, Germany and San Marino through 2031. Early this summer, we announced our 2026 calendar, which we will see MotoGP race in Brazil for the first time since 1989 and a return to Buenos Aires in 2027. This will both be a fantastic location for MotoGP in important growth markets in South America as we work towards optimizing both our circuits and race calendar. We are making investments to support our commercial activities with the goal of expanding our sport to avoid a global audience while maintaining the sport heritage. We have renewed our broadcast agreement with Supersport. Additionally, we have signaled Repsol to a multi-year partnership as the official lubricant supplier of Moto2 and Moto3, and successfully renewed our Liqui Moly partnership. Sponsorship remains a large growth opportunity for us, but we expect that it will take time to build our pipeline. We look forward to continue to update the investor community on our progress. Now, I will turn the call back to Over, to Derek.

Thank you, Brian, Stefano, and Carmelo. For those of you on call, we look forward to seeing you in a few weeks at this year's Liberty Media Investor Day. We will be hosting our Investor Day alongside the F1 Business Summit in Las Vegas on Thursday, November 20th in advance of the Grand Prix. We hope to see you there. We will have limited in-person attendance for the Investor Day, but all presentations will be webcast. Tickets are available for purchase for the F1 Business Summit please check out their website and email our IR team once purchased so we can confirm their attendance. Before we open for Q&A, I want to take a moment to recognize Shane Kleinstein, our head of investor relations, on her last earnings call with us. She has been instrumental in our investor relations and broader communications functions at Liberty and has left an indelible mark on our company. On behalf of the entire Liberty Media team, thank you, Shane, and we wish you the best in your future endeavors. We will have a new head of investor relations joining us and look forward to sharing that update in the future. In the meantime, we encourage you to please continue to reach out to the rest of the IAR team or email investor at libertymedia.com with questions. We appreciate your continued interest in Liberty Media, and with that, we'll open the call up for Q&A. Operator?

Thank you. We'll now be conducting the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question this time, please press star 1 from your telephone keypad and a confirmation tone to indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to withdraw your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, for our first question. And as a reminder, we ask you to please limit yourself to one question. The first question today comes from the line of David Karnavosky with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your questions.

Okay, great. Thanks. Maybe for Derek and Stefano, on the U.S. Rights Agreement, I think the dollar figures are fairly straightforward, but I wanted to see if you could speak a bit to how you're looking at this agreement, specifically from an engagement perspective, and how investors should perceive any risk regarding a move away from linear or ESPN, and what gives you comfort that you can continue to grow the U.S. media audience?

Stefano, you want to take that? Yeah, of course. Thanks, David, for the question. I mean, I think that, as you know, U.S. market is very, very important for our growth. And the fact that we have done an incredible deal with Apple is because we do believe that all the elements that will be important for this kind of growth are there. We know that we can count on an incredible brand that is not a brand, it's a social relevant brand. And because the nature of our fans is young, is dynamic, is multitasking, I think that the decision was the right one. And in terms of engagement, we are totally committed to make sure that all the content, all the platforms that are through the Apple ecosystem can be provided. We're going to increase even more the ratio we have today. So therefore, you know, as always, when you take a decision, On the business side, you put balance risk and versus opportunity, and I think on that, it was pretty clear that the risks were minor and the opportunities are huge. Therefore, we are really looking forward to embrace new chapters with them because we know that can be very progressive in proposing new things that will be very, very important to make sure that the things that I said before, David, on social relevancy of our sport will increase and will go. And, of course, this is a multi-year deal because we know that we need to be resilient on this approach. And that's why we are totally convinced that it's an incredible partnership that will be stronger and stronger in the future.

Yeah, thanks, Stefano. I think I would add that, you know, the way we look at it now, and I think a lot of folks are looking at it this way, is sort of the definition of reach, which historically has really revolved around sort of the broadcast window on television. And I think that, in our minds, is an antiquated definition of reach at this point and the way a company like Apple and a partner like Apple can touch, you know, many different demographics in many different ways. And so I think that's an important thing to understand in terms of how we're thinking about it. I think, except for another point about this being a longer-term deal, it's important because when you're thinking about a company like Apple and the way that they invest behind a product, it's not like, you know, the product in the fifth year is going to look much different, I guarantee you, than what you see in the first year. And that's going to be two years of investment in what they do. And I think we are at a great sort of point in time in the U.S. with the races that we've had here, with the support that we've received and the new fans that we've brought in, with the new sponsors we've brought in, to really take all of this and sort of move it forward in a whole different way with a partner like Apple. And I think we'll see the fruits of this over the next several years.

Maybe just as a follow-on, it would seem to us that with Apple TV, you have an agreement now with a partner that has reach across most of your territories and they have rights to the F1 movie. And logically, they could be a bidder in more regions. So I just wanted to get your view on that and whether that global factor was something you considered in your decision to partner here.

Yeah, I think it's an important question.

Go ahead, Stephan. I'll let you start. No, thank you. Sorry for that. Well, I think that what I can say is that, as you know, we are a worldwide sport where the segmentation of different deals is crucial to be in the right market with the right partner and what i can say straight away is that the fact that we are signed with apple immediately has been a sort of a wake-up call from the actual partners around the world to say hey we want to stay with you we want to invest so what's next i think that that vitally is it's great because it will attract the fact that apple is a global partnership and for sure if we have countries where We can see different kinds of potential where we can work together. We will discuss with Apple too, but this doesn't mean that we will cover, you know, the entire world with the only one Apple deal, because we do believe that at this time we have much stronger, the way we have structured all our deal around the world on, on, on, on the broadcast sites. But for sure, the effect of having said the deal with Apple has been already big around the world.

Yeah. And I would add just, you know, in all of these markets globally, you almost have to still take it market by market. The dynamics within these markets have been shifting. And in some places you have new entrants, in other places there's consolidation. And sort of, you know, depending on when your deals term out, those competitive dynamics can come into play. And I think having someone like Apple, and, you know, we're in early discussions, the early stages of this relationship. And so where their interest is, in other locations globally, I think we will see over time. But I think we all understand on the call that any time you have a more competitive environment, you're better off. So we'll leave it there. Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Brian Kraft with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good morning. I had two if I could. I guess first on Vegas, it sounds like you're on track for your budgeted ticket sales for Vegas. I was wondering about the cost side. Can you talk about how you're tracking your cost budget for the event? And then separately, just on U.S. media rights, Should we expect to see a meaningful step up in media rights revenue in the U.S. next year when taking into account both the Apple rights agreement and the loss of the F1 TV subscription revenue, given that Apple will be taking that over in the U.S.? Thanks.

If I may start, Derek. Yes, thanks, Brian, for the question. I mean, first of all, Vegas. You know Vegas is one of our priorities. As I said, you know, ticket sales are on target, but you correctly take one point that for sure what we have experienced was a big attention on the core side of the organization. And after the first years, I would say that we are on track in minimizing in the right way the cost because at the beginning you try to cover a new investment in the right way. And now with all the new partners and the fact that we have renewed for big deals for the next couple of years, we are definitely on track also in controlling the cost of it. I have to say that we have seen a big shift on the community perceptive on what Vegas Race represents for them. Therefore, working together with them, I think is beneficial and has already an impact this year with regard to the fact that the cost will be reduced, definitely. And this will have, of course, a positive impact at the end and on the P&L of the race. Of course, as you know, we are working very hard to make sure that the event will be great, as it always has been. We have, as you know, shifted the starting time of the race at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. And this is for sure very, very important event uh the fact that uh the community is really embracing as i said before this event so cost is definitely one lever that we want to make under the control of it and we are on track also on that then with regard to the second question us media right uh if we can expand more money as you know we cannot give any guidance on that but i would say what is important to say it's uh it's uh the f1 subscription uh on f1 tv is a great asset also for apple we have a great community that will connect through the Apple platform with our part of the F1 TV. So I don't expect that this will have a negative effect. Actually, it will be the opposite, because I think that this community is quite solid, and the fact that we'll be embraced on the Apple platform will increase the value globally for the future of both of them together.

Yeah, and I just want to say, you know, to our... to our team in Vegas who've done a fantastic job. And these guys are in the last few weeks of bringing this thing home that we are, you know, all feeling good about Vegas this year. But I think more importantly almost is what Stefano was saying about our relationships with folks in the market and really that we're looking at this as a long-term sort of investment. And I think after coming out of the first few years and sort of As I've seen these guys and interacted with the folks in Vegas, the sort of vibe around the race and where this thing can be longer term continues to be something where we see a concerted amount of opportunity. I think that's probably the biggest point, the biggest takeaway over the first three years of having this race.

Ken, thanks to you both. Appreciate it.

Our next question is from the line of Kutkan Maral with Evercore ISI. Please receive your question.

Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. Two, if I could, around sponsorship. So first, it seems like every other day you're inking new and attractive deals. Looking at the year-to-date team payment trends, it seems like the full-year budget is tracking exactly in line relative to the first two quarters of the year. So should we take this to mean that these new sponsorships and maybe licensing opportunities primarily fall in 2026? or are there other offsets that we should be mindful of? And second, I was hoping to dig into licensing a little bit more specifically. You know, licensing is still a relatively small contributor to the business, but it seems like the team has really focused on expanding your efforts there. So maybe you could talk about the strategy and long-term opportunity you see ahead, and are you able to accelerate the momentum next year under the new Concord? Thanks.

Well, thanks. I mean, I've been... Sorry. Go ahead, Brian.

Yeah, Stefano, I was just going to start on the sponsorship and then please add color. But, yeah, I mean, I think the team is feeling good about where we sit with sponsorship for 26, and a lot of these are long-term agreements, multi-year agreements that accrue to the future years. So, you know, as you sign them later in the year, they're going to have less of an impact, obviously, on the current kind. Yeah, thanks, Brian.

If I may add, I would say, yeah, I think that – You know that our strategy is not to talk a lot but do the things. And the fact that we are showing with facts that every couple of months we are there to be resilient in continuing the growth. This is our nature, is our business, is the beauty of what we have built up now as a great foundation. And the fact that not only new partners but also partners that are part of us since many, many years are staying with us long term. It means we do have a great credible platform, we have a credible strategy that is not diluting at all the value of them being with us, with other people, with our partners. It's getting stronger because we do believe in a cross-contamination of big partners that can enhance the value of our business and our sport. So we are really looking for the fact that we have now deals that is looking into the future And what I'm saying is not only the dollars that count, it's the awareness that we bring connectivity with new fans. The deal that we have done with Lego, with Disney, with Hello Kitty, is showing the fact that we want to have a community that will engage in long term with our platform. That's really our focus. Our focus is for sure to deliver the result that we promised to our shareholders, to the teams, to our stakeholders for sure, but we have a bigger thing ahead of us. We have a headwind that we want to keep running with it because we feel that the future men should be totally strong and totally ready for the next few years ahead of us.

Thank you both, and a very special thanks to Shane for all the help over the years.

Our next question is from the line of Stephen Lesick with Goldman Sachs. Pleasure to see you with your question.

Hey, thanks for taking the questions. Maybe another one on the global meteorites opportunity for F1. I'm just curious as you look out across the globe where you see the most opportunity up next in terms of increasing monetization. What contracts, what regions, what types of partners do you feel like you could bring in to increase the value either on a monetary basis or along the lines of this holistic partnership where that could be improved? Then maybe secondly on hospitality, you called out some of the strengths in hospitality in the quarter paddock club at F1. Just curious to elaborate a little bit more on the drivers of that growth, whether it's strong pricing, whether you've seen more capacity come into the system this year on the back of some race promotion renewals, or if most of that is still ahead of us given the renewal calendar and when some of those contracts and expansion of the paddock club kick in perhaps next year. Thank you.

Thanks. I mean, if I may, Derek, I'll start. So we have other deals on which we are working on. So I would say stay tuned because there will be some other information going around the media deal in the future. As you know, and I don't want to undervalue what is the value for us to be a global sport. We have a global sport and global deals. And the nature of the business is growing everywhere. So I think that we need to have a sort of mixed situation around the world. Some of them will be linear. In the future, some other will move in a different platform because what we need to do is to make sure that we see the relevancy and the opportunity monetizing as much as we can every market, but also checking what is the trend that every market is offering to us. So I think that this deal, as I said before, has had an effect of accelerating the fact that the long-term deal wants to be even longer with the path that we have. So it's up to us to make sure that we need to do the right choices for the future, but the dynamic in this stream of revenue will be very important in the future. Even if some of the people would say that the shift between linear or pay TV versus digital will have a sort of drop in dollars optimization, I do believe that the nature of the business that is global will cover that for us in the future because the competition is very high in all the different platforms. Then with regard to the hospitality, I think that the reason why we feel confident in the future You know, this is another asset that, despite a long-term deal with a lot of partners, some can say, where is the gain that you can have with them? Actually, it's the other way around. Because we know that the hospitality hand aside is a limiting factor in terms of capacity for us. And the only way that we can have with the promoters to make sure that also these assets will be even stronger is to give them the chance to invest long-term. Therefore, that's the strategy we're going to do in a lot of markets because we don't have to forget that we want to increase the quantity of availability, but we cannot lose the quality approach of what we are offering to our customers, and this is not negotiable. We have some examples. This year, look what Hungary did in terms of renovation of the infrastructure, what they're going to do. still doing in the future and that this has an effect that for example you have seen what will happen in austin in terms of new facilities that will be beneficial to our hospitality plan so everything has an effect in a constructive way with everyone that is a part of our ecosystem yeah i i would also just point you to stefano's previous comments on

In fact, we just recently announced a deal with Renovo Televisa in Mexico. We previously announced a deal with Glovo in Brazil. And as he said, there's a couple more deals on the table that are coming on the media right side. So I think it is shaping up to sort of be an environment going forward here where we've got the right partners in the markets that are important to us. And that'll continue to drive, I think, engagement and awareness of the sport. Great. Thank you both.

Our next question is from the line of Joe Saff with Susquehanna. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Good morning. The first question is on Vegas. I'm wondering, you know, I think in general, you know, is it fair, number one, to assume most of the growth this year will be from the high end? And if you can give us maybe a little bit more of what you're seeing from the low end, That's the first question. Second question is on Modo and race renewals. I guess since Libby did for Modo, our count is that there's been approximately nine renewals. I think there are, I guess it's more of a clarification, another six to seven to go that expire at the end of 26. Thank you.

Joe, I think we got your second one, but we missed your first. So why don't we have Carlos take the second, and then if you could just repeat your first question after, please.

Okay. All right, thank you. Yes, we have seen a lot of traction on a number of fronts since the announcement of Liberty Media. One of those is definitely being promoters, where we see a lot of interest, of course, with a limited number of racists. and we do see a lot of increases in the renewals. The total number was higher than that, actually, but a number of those have already been renewed. We still have eight events to be renewed for the 2027 season, and eight of which have already been renewed or announced in the past 12 months, and we continue to see a lot of interest from both new locations, but also interest in expanding the current events in Europe and outside with increases.

Understood. Thank you for that. I'll repeat my first question. I apologize for the background noise. In Vegas, is it fair to assume most of the growth you'll see this year is coming largely from the higher end, and just wondering if you could comment on what demand looks like, you know, DA or the lower end of demand.

Thanks, Joe. I mean, I can say two things that are relevant to the fact that this year we do believe that everything is on track and what we wanted to have another successful season. First of all, there has been a big change on the pricing. and and and how we position our our our tickets during the year uh what has happened is factual in the past has been the last couple of weeks dropping pricing but uh what we have done this year is actually the opposite we were announcing a great different packages offer with the fact that we were explained to everyone that has been that our strategy was different therefore do not expect Do not expect to see prices going down because this will not happen. It actually is not happening. The other thing is, of course, the demand is very strong, much stronger in all the areas. We have also created packages for GA to allow even the community to be closer to the event. And this is something that is hand-on-hand with the fact that we also have a daily ticket that has been in the package. And of course, this is, we said since the first day coming in Vegas, we had to learn the lesson of being in a community that is new, was new for F1. Therefore, I think that the incredible job that Emily and her team is doing is taking the experience that has been done in the first years in order to progress in all the dimensions of this business. That would be, I don't want to say something that, you know, people would not believe in, a great success because Vegas is understanding the value of our business there too, and this is very, very important also for them.

Thank you, Stefano. Thank you, Carlos.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Peter Supino with Wolf Research. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good morning, and Shane, thank you, and best of luck. You'll be missed. I wanted to ask about operating leverage generally in the Concord Agreement specifically. I think your last comment on the Concord Agreement in 26 is that it provides for modest operating leverage, assuming the business is on track. And I wonder if you could give a perspective on refresh that and then talk about the possibilities beyond 2026. Thank you.

Yeah, Stephan, I can start with that and feel free to add color. Yeah, with the new agreement, we would expect some modest leverage. We can't really say much more than that in the 2026, similar to what you've seen over the last few years. And then beyond that time, the percentage we would expect to be fixed, and then you'd hope to see leverage in the underlying base business.

Yeah, I mean, Brian, you're very clear. And I would say for me, what we can add is really the fact that we can see a great stability in the sport in the future with regard to the governance, to the fact that we are solid looking into the next five years in a condition where we really think that, you know, everything will be done. Understanding that the team are part of the growth and their social, their financial strength is the strength of the businesses. You know, and this is very, very important to recognize that. Therefore, on everything, you know, I do believe that now we are finalizing the case. I want to thank not only the team, but also the president of FIA, Mohamed Bensoulayem, because we are sharing a great future together. That is great, because in this moment, we just need to make sure that all the conditions are stable to keep growing together.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Stephen Cahill with Wells Fargo. Let's just see if it's your question.

Thanks. First, Stefano, I just wanted to ask you on competitive balance. We've seen some good racing this year between some of the top drivers and the top teams. I think we still have about six out of ten teams that don't race for podiums most weekends, and I was wondering if there's anything that you might be implementing in the next couple of years that could improve that since it can tie to future growth in the value of the sport. And then Derek, I think you said you expect some continued growth in the cost this year as you invest into growth strategies. I was wondering if you could just expand on what those elements are and what the return on investment for some of those things look like. Thank you.

Thanks, Stephen. I mean, with regard to the competitive balance, I would say we've never seen such in the last couple of years, a competition with a lot of teams that before were not even able to score any points. I can nominate one team on top of the other. It has, just to give you an example. And the gap between the cars and the drivers is minimal. And therefore, I would say what we're living today is really something unique and which we are very proud of. And all the teams now, due to the budget cap, due to the fact that the races are very interesting, due to the fact that the business is so solid, are willing to invest and be even more stronger into the future. And this is very, very important. And we don't have to forget this is very relevant to make sure that without this kind of situation we're living today, not how the Honda Ford Cadillac would have come next year in our sport or even more with more investment. So, as we always said, the sport is at the heart of our platform and no one has to doubt about it. You know that next year we're going to have change in order to be cognizant with the fact that technology applied to F1 has been always very relevant. We will have sustainable fuel at the center of the use of new powertrain and it is normal to think that when there is such a big change of regulation you know, there could be a big difference at the beginning. But the regulation is done in a way that if this would happen, you know, we know that there are mechanisms to make sure that the gaps can be reduced in a smaller time than normal. And therefore, this is a very important element to keep the dynamic of our sport at the center. And therefore, I think that no one, and if we didn't have these dynamics, no one would have been interested to come in in our sport. That's why As I said, Stephen, this is for sure one of the main focus that we need to keep, to keep the center of our business, the sport and the racing itself.

Thank you, Stefano. And in an exciting off-the-track news, Charlotte was engaged yesterday. On the question of incremental costs, that was related to MotoGP. And, you know, I think we've made this comment in the past, and it's not dissimilar to sort of coming into a new business, trying to, you know, ultimately drive growth and drive revenue growth long-term, but making upfront investments that will lead us to that point. I think as we talked about previously, some of the investment in, you know, sort of expertise, personnel with the right expertise to drive the commercial side of the business, but also even revenue-generating assets, including things like track, signage, investments into the video pass product, enhancements. All that sort of stuff is sort of ongoing and had already been ongoing prior to us closing the deal.

But I'll let Dan give some more detail on that. Thanks, Derek, and thanks, Stephen. I think Derek hit on a few of the really key areas of investment that we had started as early as last year, focused on one on the marketing side of the business in terms of new hires. Um, and also on the storytelling side, how do we reach new fans, uh, and not only new fans, but new fans based on the geographies that they are. We have to tailor that content to them. So that is taking significant time and investment in order to reach those people. Derek also mentioned what we've done to improve the look and feel of both the racetracks, the circuits, and also the paddock. So we've done some investment there. And the last thing I would say is we continue to innovate and iterate on our digital properties, specifically VideoPass, to try to make sure that the digital offerings we have for consumers matches the innovation that we have on track.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of David Joyce of Seaport Research. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Another MotoGP question. You mentioned that new races are coming in Brazil and Argentina, but you've also had a number of other renewals. So as you go through these renewals, do they allow for some rotating races, given that you're already maxed out at 22 per year, given your agreement with the teams? And does that somehow impact your media rights renewals cadence? If you could provide some color on that. Thank you.

Sure. This is Derek. Look, I think right now we are in a position where we have either some capacity in the sense that some races come up for renewal that we may have, you know, if we choose to go to a different location, we have that capability to do that. So the concept of rotating races right now is probably not near term. And I will then, I guess, Carlos, if you want to comment on that further, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Derek. I would completely agree. We don't see sort of the short-term need to have rotating races. We think it's important. One of our main goals that's been sort of confirmed also in these first months of Liberty Media is one of our key priorities and targets is to invest in our events and turn our races into more and more of entertainment events globally. And a part of that is, of course, improving the event itself and, where possible, also the event locations. We have Brazil coming in already five months from now after more than 25 years, and Buenos Aires, which will be another city where we race at. So all these events are a key focus for us in entering new markets. we do see that we still have capacity to bring in new events probably outside Europe and there's no need to sort of rotate on current events in the short term. We don't see this impacting our media rights at all. We continue to have 22 events. All 22 events have sprints and that's been a part of the investment of making these events more of entertainment events, having more action, more notorious action on track around the whole weekend. And that's something that we've also leveraged together with other assets to be able to increase on our media audiences. So we don't see that the race mix will affect our media rights.

Thank you, Carlos and Derek. You know, the whole concept here is to improve sort of the quality of the product across the board, including where we have races, who our local promoter partners are that help us drive, you know, promotion of the sport and all that, which will ultimately lead to deeper and broader engagement, which in theory will drive media coverage and media rights.

Thanks, Derek. Next question is from the line of Ryan Gravitt with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Great, thank you. Just in terms of the upcoming split off, does anything change in terms of your capital allocation plans or priorities at Formula One Group? And along those lines, any expected changes to operations or the commercial relationship between Quint and Formula One after the split occurs? Thanks.

I'll take that. So that would be probably no on both. And we can leave it there.

Okay, fair. Just maybe just a follow-up on MotoGP then. In terms of the hospitality offering for that business, I was wondering if you could talk to the opportunity there and, you know, when some of the benefits of the integration could start to materialize. Thanks.

Yeah, I think we do see significant opportunity on the hospitality side of Moto. I don't know if any of you guys have been to a Moto race, but it is a pretty thrilling event to attend, I think, where we do see opportunity is sort of the experience at the track that goes beyond what you're watching and what you're feeling. And so just like that F1, having that opportunity to upgrade elements of that hospitality product is something our team, Dan and his team, are very focused on, and actually working with Quint on that particular dynamic. So, Dan, if you want to give a little bit more color, feel free.

Yeah, thanks, Derek. I think what he said is correct. I think we do have a lot of – we've made some really good improvements at MotoGP in the hospitality offering from both a service and an experience standpoint. We now have to execute on a plan that is to reach both our existing consumers to get them more involved throughout the weekend and also, though, to find a new set of fan base, a new group of fans to purchase hospitality, particularly at the races where we do well but have capacity room. So what I would say is working with Quint, what we're trying to do is not only look at pricing but look at the ladder, making sure that we get a good product ladder so that we can offer people things at different price points so we can upsell on experiences. Because what MotoGP does have is we are a hugely accessible sport, so we have the ability to package in really great experiences with our base hospitality program that I think is unique in the sports industry. So we see a good upside here. It's going to take some execution, and we're looking forward to collaborating with Quint on that.

Great. Thanks, Jesse.

Thank you. Our last question will be coming from the line of Matthew Harrigan with Benchmark Company. Please just use your question.

Thank you. Actually, first of all, thanks to Shane for all the classic Investor Day skits, which I hope are going to be available on an archival basis because they were really, really great. Obviously, other people at Liberty were involved too. I think Shane was the main architect. I think my questions are partially answered, but Are you seeing all the teams being able to adequately cope with the new 26 engine regs? And do you see anything commercial and tangible coming out of the Saudi Aramco send fuels venture? I know you touched on those questions to some extent, but if you could amplify a little more of that, that would be great. Thank you.

I definitely think so. I definitely think so. I think the fact that on the paddock everyone believes that it's faster than the other means that there are so many variables that everyone believes to have the secret receipt of being more competitive. I do believe that, of course, the level of technology that is needed in terms of knowledge is not only on the power unit. We forget that it's a new car. We forget that it's a totally different dynamic on how you have to drive your car is dynamic aerodynamics. It's a different way to monetize. It's a different way to manage energy. It's a different way for the drivers to drive with the new regulations. So everyone is really focused on. And the beauty of that, that we have still teams that are fighting for points, that are will be converted in dollars at the end of this season for the championship. So there are still some developing during the last couple of races because no one wants to give up. So it's all fascinating. I think that really all the elements of attention are there and on which we should be very, very proud.

Great. Thank you, Stefano. I think with that, we're going to wrap it up. Again, thank you, Shane, for all of your... Great work over the years. We look forward to seeing where you go next. Thank you, Shane.

And also from the F1 side. All together, one family.

Thanks, Stephano. With that, we'll wrap it up. And again, just finally, Investor Day on the 20th, followed by the F1 Business Summit in Vegas. For those of you who can make it, see you there.

This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. Have a wonderful day.