By acquiring MotoGP, Liberty Media aims to follow the steps it took with Formula 1, enhancing the product by exposing it to new markets and new fans to make it grow. Much has changed in F1 since the Americans arrived in 2017, and now they want to showcase the potential of MotoGP by replicating what they did with the premier category of motorsport.
Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, commented in a conference with investors: ‘We obviously had success with Netflix, but we also had success in opening up F1 in various other ways – whether through social media, bringing drivers to fans on Twitch, fan experience zones, fan zones, even changing the perspective on how the sport is done. This is an incredible sport and its passionate fan base knows how exciting it is. But our goal is to expose it in some ways to a broader world as we did with F1‘.
From Dorna Sports, sports director Carlos Ezpeleta spoke about the expectations placed on Liberty Media to help grow MotoGP:
– We are very proud of the sport we have and we believe there could not be a better partner than Liberty to help us explore that visibility and improve our fan engagement, and have more people aware of the sport outside of the main markets. And one thing they have done incredibly well is to make the sport have cultural impact and transcend the sport itself. And we believe that many of the values we have with MotoGP will transcend very well to a younger and more diverse fan base around the world. Another thing we think Liberty will be good at is helping us tell a story beyond the races. And both things combined, I believe will create great value for us outside of our more endemic markets.
