AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Liberty Media-owned Formula One and the Walt Disney Company announced an extension of their broadcast partnership on Saturday, keeping the game on ESPN networks in america until 2025.
The brand new three-year agreement includes expanded direct-to-consumer rights, with details yet to be announced, and more races than before shown on ESPN and ABC with coverage provided by Sky Sports television.
ESPN has had the printed rights since 2018, when it took over from NBC Sports, and audiences have grown strongly because the sport takes off in america and reaches a latest and younger audience.
Las Vegas will debut next yr as a 3rd U.S. race after Austin, which hosts Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix on the Circuit of the Americas, and Miami.
Last yr was the most-viewed season ever on U.S. television with a mean 949,000 viewers per race, in response to Formula One. That has increased to a mean 1.2 million after 18 of twenty-two races in 2022.
The inaugural Miami Grand Prix broadcast on ABC television this yr generated a mean viewership of two.6 million, the most important U.S. audience ever for a live Formula One race.
Next season is scheduled to have a record 24 races
“We’re delighted to announce that our partnership with ESPN will proceed,” said Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali in a press release.
“Formula One has seen incredible growth in america with sold-out events and record television audiences… The ESPN networks have played an enormous part in that growth with their dedicated quality coverage.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Clare Fallon)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
