Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei has revealed that TV viewership in the United States is currently up on what it was at last season, suggesting that Formula 1’s boom across the pond is continuing.
F1 has been growing exponentially in the US over the last few years, most notably since Liberty Media bought the sport.
Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ series has also been a huge success, with the American races now seeing record-breaking attendances.
From this season, the US has three races, Miami, Texas and Las Vegas.
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The latter is returning to the calendar for the first time since 1982, when it was known as the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
F1 is actually promoting the Las Vegas Grand Prix themselves, with the championship being responsible for ticket sales.
It’s expected to be a spectacle like no other, which is partly why it’s seen some of the highest ticket prices recorded.
Should viewership in the US continue to rise, then who’s to say that the nation won’t soon have four races on the calendar.
Only two races so far this season haven’t attracted over one million viewers, whereas four others have seen record live audiences in the US.
“Viewership on ESPN is up on season to date versus the 2022 average viewership with strong F1 TV performance as well,” Maffei said, as reported by GPFans.com.
“The 2023 season has already seen three of the four largest live audiences in F1 history on US TV, including Miami, Monaco and the Canadian GPs. All but two of our races have averaged more than one million viewers. Huge numbers for the US market.”
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Sprint races are also appearing to have a huge impact on attendances, with the majority of races this season having sold out.
Liberty Media are seeing “year-over-year growth” in TV audiences as well since introducing the sprints in 2021, suggesting that we’re set to see more of them, not less.
“We continue to have sell-outs at almost all races,” Liberty Media said. “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.”