For Liberty Media (FWONA), the company that holds the rights to Formula One racing, the idea of owning the media rights to high-speed international racing might seem a lot more valuable than most would think. However, it turns out that those rights are actually much less valuable than expected, and Liberty Media is having a tough time making sales. That is bad news for investors, who sent shares down over 4% in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
On the surface, this should be an easy sell. Formula One, after all, is basically NASCAR, but with much more complex tracks and different style cars. So Liberty Media took its case around to various media companies, trying to get between $150 million and $180 million per year for the rights to broadcast Formula One racing, starting with the 2026 season.
Demand, however, has been tepid at that price. Considering that it is about twice what ESPN (DIS) has been paying recently—and vastly more than it used to pay, when it got the races for free—it is little surprise that the demand has been light. Liberty Media does have a strong point on its side, though: demand for live Formula One races in the United States has doubled since 2018, when ESPN got the rights for no charge.
Picking Up More Motorsports
But Liberty Media is not merely out pushing one property, reports note. It has been working on the acquisition of MotoGP as well, and current reports suggest that the deal is moving rapidly through regulators’ hands on its way to completion. In fact, the deal is expected to close in “early July.”
MotoGP, for those not familiar, is basically high-end motorcycle racing. That makes it an excellent complementary product for Liberty Media, who has already been brokering racing content for some time now. In fact, it is enough to wonder if Liberty Media could get its $150 – $180 million ask if it threw in some MotoGP content along with it. Bundle pricing has done well in the past; there is no reason to think it could not do well here.
Is Liberty Media a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on FWONA stock based on three Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 15.09% rally in its share price over the past year, the average FWONA price target of $96 per share implies 40.21% upside potential.