Liberty Media (FWONA) Q3 2026 earnings review
Liberty's F1 earns more per race, but MotoGP sales shrink
Liberty Media's Formula 1 series is thriving, while the motorcycle championship it bought last year is going backwards. Formula 1 staged an extra race and earned $159 million from each event, against $145 million a year ago. MotoGP ran fewer races, its sales dropped by about a third, and it slipped into an operating loss.
| Revenue for each Formula 1 race staged | $159 million $145 million a year ago |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $1,226 million +18% from a year ago, leaving out the business split off in December |
| Formula 1 profit before depreciation and one-offs | $338 million +44% from a year ago |
| Full-year plan for team payments | Unchanged about two percentage points better than 2025 |
⚖️ Verdict: 🟢 Bullish
The standing case got better: Formula 1 delivered the second-half recovery its own accounting pointed to, and the full-year cost plan is within reach. Team payments absorbed 55.5% of its profit measured before them, against 59.3% last year. One caution: MotoGP is losing price as well as races.
The question now is whether MotoGP can follow the path Formula 1 took. One view reads the signed contracts, the new executives and the new races as the start of that climb; the other reads falling media fees as proof the playbook does not transfer. Full-year revenue, with exchange rates held still, gives the first clean reading.
🐂 Bull Case
Formula 1 Earns More From Every Race
Formula 1 sells each season three ways: promoters pay to host a race, broadcasters pay for the year, and sponsors pay for exposure. Liberty spreads that season money over the races it expects to stage, so the event count decides the quarter.
Liberty staged one more race than a year ago, and during the quarter it re-set its season accounting to a 23-race year. “Our operating businesses are performing incredibly well,” chief executive Derek Chang said. Every race has sold out this season, Stefano Domenicali added, and more than half set attendance records.
- Revenue per race staged: $159 million, against $145 million a year ago
- Formula 1 revenue: $1,115 million, 28% above last year
- Team payments: 37.8% of revenue, 1.4 points below last year
- Profit before depreciation and one-off items: $338 million, up 44%
What to watch: the fourth-quarter figures, which carry Las Vegas and the Bahrain race rescheduled to Malaysia. If the season closes at 23 events, Formula 1 books eight of them in that quarter, and the weaker year-earlier comparison flatters the result again.
Hospitality and Licensing Keep Growing
Beyond race fees, Formula 1 sells hospitality, licences and freight services, and it runs the Grand Prix Plaza site in Las Vegas. Liberty groups all of that as other revenue, which reached $181 million in the quarter, 38% above last year.
Finance chief Brian Wendling pointed to “most of the revenue growth you are seeing in hospitality” and to licensing. The sport added 15% more Paddock Club space at Monza and the same again at Austin. House 44, its club with Soho House, moves from nine locations to 13 next year, and Leica will sell a Formula 1 camera.
What to watch: other revenue in the fourth quarter, which carries the Las Vegas race. Domenicali said that for next season “our capacity is almost gone because there is such a request”, so a soft reading would point at pricing rather than demand.
Long Contracts Reach Into the 2030s
Both championships sell their future before it arrives. Contracts already signed cover $3.7 billion of 2027 revenue, up from $3.6 billion three months earlier. Counting every later year, customers have committed about $19.6 billion.
The quarter added long-dated deals on both sides of the group. Domenicali announced “a landmark ten-year agreement to return to Africa with a future race in Rwanda” from the early 2030s, and extended the DAZN broadcast deal in Spain, Portugal and Andorra to 2030. MotoGP renewed Portugal to 2029 and Mugello, home of the Italian race, to 2031.
What to watch: the 2027 contracted figure in the annual report. It only climbs when Liberty signs new business, because each passing quarter moves money out of it and into revenue.
Cheaper Debt Cuts the Interest Bill
Liberty borrows at the two championships rather than at the parent company. Formula 1's loans cost less after a margin step-down last year, so the group's interest bill fell to $69 million from $79 million even though total borrowings grew.
Net debt at Formula 1 now sits at 2.1 times yearly profit, down from 2.7 times in June. Neither championship has drawn its revolving credit line, and Liberty holds $2.3 billion in cash and deposits. Chang said the group is “probably being cautious in terms of cash”, and the untouched $1.1 billion buyback authority shows it.
What to watch: MotoGP's leverage at the year end, because its ratio moved the wrong way, to 4.7 times. Management set a three-to-four-times goal for the end of 2026 and has not repeated it, so another rise would tell you the goal has gone.
🐻 Bear Case
MotoGP Revenue Fell by a Third
Liberty paid about $3.7 billion in July last year for most of MotoGP, the motorcycle championship it wants to turn into a second Formula 1. Revenue dropped by a third, to $111 million. MotoGP also turned last year's operating profit into a small loss.
Two fewer races explain part of that, and currency explains none: stripping exchange rates out makes the fall slightly worse. Measured per race and in local currency, revenue still slid about 9%. Liberty blames “a decline in contractual media rights revenue”, which is a lower price rather than a timing effect.
Costs went the other way. Selling and administrative expense took 18.9% of revenue against 11.2%, because MotoGP hired chief commercial, operating, strategy and media officers and promoted Carlos Ezpeleta to deputy chief executive. “MotoGP Group is entering a period of transformational change,” he told investors.
What to watch: full-year revenue with exchange rates held still, and the fees from the new Argentina and Adelaide races. Chang says Liberty is “building the foundation to unlock the sport’s significant long-term growth potential”; those fees are where the claim gets tested.
The Middle East Still Sets the Calendar
Formula 1 planned 24 races for 2026. The conflict in the Middle East removed the Saudi Arabian race in April and pushed the Bahrain race to Malaysia in October, so the season now counts 23. Because season money follows the race count, Liberty re-cut its own accounting during the quarter.
The missing event shows up over nine months, where Formula 1 revenue reads $2,496 million against $2,498 million even though every contract carries an annual increase. Two races fewer swallowed that escalation whole. Qatar and Abu Dhabi, both in the region, close the season, and the release repeats that “Additional calendar changes may be necessary”.
What to watch: whether the season really ends at 23 races. Chang said Liberty checks the situation daily and keeps contingency plans for next year as well, and 2027 opens with races in the same region, so the exposure carries over.
Risks this quarter didn't answer
Four standing worries got no new numbers this quarter, and for each of them investors know exactly where the answer would appear.
- Las Vegas economics: still never published; asked about pacing, Domenicali said “the revenue will be high. The cost is contained”, with no figures. A standalone revenue and profit line in the annual report would settle it.
- Formula 1 overheads: selling and administrative costs rose to $94 million from $83 million on personnel, and climbed again over nine months; the quarterly cost table shows whether revenue keeps outrunning them.
- Team-payment leverage: the finance chief expects the payout share to stay level for the rest of the Concorde term to 2030, so from 2027 margin has to come from the revenue base instead.
- Dilution: the $475 million bond due 2027 turns into shares at $82.98 each, the new 2032 bond at $138.68, and MotoGP's minority owners can demand payment half in shares from 2028.
What to watch: the annual report in February, which carries the full-year cost tables and the settlement route for the 2027 bond. Liberty paid $121 million for a capped call to blunt that bond, so the cash answer is already partly bought.
👓 Other Themes
Malone Gives Up His High-Vote Shares
On November 4 Liberty took in the high-vote Series B shares held by John Malone and his trusts, handing back low-vote and non-voting stock. His voting power falls to about 3%, which the company calls “better alignment of voting power and economic ownership”. Liberty also adopted a shareholder rights plan running to November 2027, and has not yet decided how to account for the exchange.
💲 Other KPIs
Customers have now paid $1,293 million for races not yet staged, against $1,090 million a year earlier. Promoters, broadcasters and sponsors pay in advance, so this balance runs ahead of reported revenue. The build during the quarter was $176 million, smaller than the $310 million added in the same quarter of 2025.
Spending on buildings, equipment and software nearly doubled, to $110 million from $58 million over the same months of 2025. Formula 1 accounts for $108 million of it. Measured against revenue the figure now runs near 3.7% a quarter, where a year ago it was close to nothing.
The loss at the corporate centre widened to $20 million from $3 million, which Liberty attributes to higher legal expenses. Rent from Grand Prix Plaza of $6 million sits inside that line and softens it. Across nine months the loss reaches $36 million, where last year it was $7 million.
🔮 Guidance
Unchanged at 23 events, one fewer than last season. Formula 1 recognised 15 of those 23, or 65%, of season money and team payments through September, and it re-set that fraction during the quarter. The count has already moved twice this year, first down and then back up, and Liberty repeats that “Additional calendar changes may be necessary”.
Unchanged. Liberty still expects a full 24-race season next year, with Portugal and Turkey rejoining the calendar. That restores the event this season lost, so each quarter of 2027 should carry a larger slice of season money than the same quarter of 2026. Two races in the Middle East remain inside the count.
Unchanged. Finance chief Brian Wendling still expects “roughly 200-basis-point improvement in leverage on this metric”, which sets the year near 57.7% against 59.7% last year. By our math that points to Formula 1 profit before depreciation of about $1,036 million for 2026, roughly a tenth above 2025, and about $387 million in the fourth quarter. The nine-month reading is 58.7%.
New. Formula 1 will run ten sprint races next season, up from six this year, while keeping them scarce relative to the full calendar. Domenicali said the format keeps “providing valuable additional inventory and commercial opportunities for our partners”. Liberty has put no figure on what the extra sessions earn, so the first reading arrives with 2027 revenue.
❓ Key Questions
What does the Las Vegas race actually earn?
Liberty promotes this race itself and has extended it to 2037, yet it has never published its revenue or profit. Domenicali again answered a direct question with words rather than numbers.
Which MotoGP media contracts reset lower, and when?
The release blames a contractual decline in media rights fees for part of the drop. Investors cannot judge the acquisition without knowing which markets reset, by how much, and when each renews.
Does the MotoGP leverage goal still stand?
Management set a three-to-four-times net debt goal for the end of 2026. The ratio was 4.7 times in September, higher than in June, and nobody on the call restated the goal.
Cash or shares for the 2027 bond?
The $475 million bond matures next August and sits in current liabilities. Liberty bought a capped call for $121 million, which hints at cash, but it has not said, nor when buybacks resume.
What happens to 2027 if the region stays closed?
Chang says contingency plans exist for next season. Investors need to know which races are swappable, how late a swap can happen, and what a second lost event does to season accounting.