Liberty Media claims Formula One US viewership is STRONG amidst criticism over poor competition

Red Bull has won all races this Formula One season.

Max Verstappen, 2022 Hungarian GP (image via Crash.net)

In 2023, interest from American Formula 1 viewers slightly waned. The opening race, Bahrain Grand Prix, attracted 1.318 million US viewers, down from 1.353 million the previous year. Notably, NASCAR maintains more incredible popularity; on the same day, 3.991 million watched a NASCAR race, while IndyCar drew 1.189 million viewers that Sunday. Red Bull’s dominance was blamed for F1’s low viewership in the US.

However, Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media, mentioned that there had been a noticeable expansion in the United States this year. He pointed out that the viewership on ESPN had increased in the ongoing season compared to the average viewership in 2022. Maffei also highlighted that the current year’s F1 TV performance was strong.

He further noted that the 2023 season had already witnessed three out of the four largest live audiences in F1 history on US TV, encompassing the Miami, Monaco, and Canadian Grand Prix races. Maffei added that almost all races, barring two, had maintained an average viewership exceeding one million, which he considered to be impressive figures for the US market.

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“Viewership on ESPN is up season to date versus the 2022 average viewership with strong F1 TV performance as well,” he said. All but two of our races have averaged more than one million viewers. Huge numbers for the US market,” Maffei stated according to RaceFans.

Also read: Stefano Domenicali claims ‘Max Verstappen saved F1′ despite the significant decline in fans’ interest due to Red Bull’s dominance

Formula One faces attendance boom and digital triumph amidst viewer drop

Fans present at the Dutch GP (Image credit: Motorsport Tickets)

Despite a slight viewership decline, positive trends are evident: increasing global Grand Prix attendees, growing social media interest, and the popularity of the “Drive to Survive” Netflix series. However, Formula 1 owner, Liberty Media, reported lower Q2 2023 revenues than the prior year due to the sudden cancellation of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix amid severe weather and flooding.

In the same interview, Greg Maffei remarked that there persisted a trend of sold-out events at nearly all races. He mentioned that the sprint weekends were contributing to year-over-year increases in viewership. As an illustration, he pointed out that the aggregate audience figures for the Spa event, encompassing the race, sprint shoot-out, and qualifying sessions, had shown an improvement compared to the Belgian Grand Prix from the previous year.

Liberty Media CEO, Greg Maffei insists that despite the increasing cost of hosting a race in Las Vegas the event will be a success. #F1 #LasVegasGP https://t.co/UAkkhNXLHe pic.twitter.com/uL0VuzzdO8
— Pitpass.com (@pitpassdotcom) August 7, 2023

“We continue to have sell-outs at almost all races. The sprint weekends are driving year-over-year growth in viewership. For example, the Spa total audience across race, sprint shoot-out and qualifying was up versus the Belgian GP last year,” he concluded.