Amid the final season under its existing media rights contract with ESPN, Formula 1 attained a viewership milestone over the weekend with the Monaco Grand Prix being televised on ABC. The race garnered the largest live U.S. television audience ever recorded for the event, averaging 2.3 million viewers for the race-only portion of the broadcast that aired between 9 and 11:30 a.m. EST. Compared to last year when the event averaged nearly 2 million viewers, viewership for the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix was up by 15%. Furthermore, the broadcast peaked with 2.6 million viewers during the 10:30-10:45 a.m. EST quarter hour. An average of 917,000 viewers fell into the Persons 18-49 demographic as well.
The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix is the third most-viewed event for the entity on television in the United States. The only two races to finish ahead in average viewership emanated from Miami, Fla. last year and in 2022, averaging 3.1 million viewers and 2.6 million viewers, respectively. It should also be noted that the broadcast of Formula 1 Qualifying from Monaco averaged 933,000 viewers on ESPN this past Saturday, indicative of a 28% year-over-year increase in this regard.
ESPN has held the rights to Formula 1 since 2018 after a previous stint broadcasting the property for 13 years beginning in 1984. During last year’s World Championship season, networks of ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC combined to average 1.1 million viewers, tying the 2023 viewership average, and also reached about 30 million fans. Through the ongoing season, Formula 1 telecasts across these networks are averaging 1.3 million viewers, representative of an 18.2% year-over-year rise. If the figure stands, it would break the all-time viewership record for Formula 1 broadcasts from ESPN established in 2022 when races averaged 1.2 million viewers.
Formula 1 is owned by Liberty Media Corporation, a multiplatform conglomerate that named Derek Chang as its president and chief executive officer earlier in the year. Liberty Media and Liberty Sirius XM officially completed a split-off last September that resulted in the satellite radio provider becoming an independent company through the redemption of outstanding shares of Series A, Series B and Series C common stock in the latter in exchange for 0.8375 shares of common stock in “New Sirius.” This new company was then subsequently named “Sirius XM Holdings Inc.,” reducing shares outstanding by 12% through a reverse-stock split under which common stock shares were converted into one-tenth of a share of common stock for the entity.
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