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Q4 2024 Liberty Media Corp Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Shane Kleinstein; Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations; Liberty Media Corp

Derek Chang; President, Chief Executive Officer; Liberty Media Corp

Brian Wendling; Principal Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer; Liberty Media Corp

Stefano Domenicali; Chief Executive Officer - Formula One Group; Liberty Media Corp

Ben Swinburne; Analyst; Morgan Stanley

David Karnovsky; Analyst; JPMorgan

Kutgun Maral; Analyst; Evercore ISI

Jeffrey Wlodarczak; Analyst; Pivotal Research Group

Stephen Laszczyk; Analyst; Goldman Sachs

Bryan Kraft; Analyst; Deutsche Bank

Steven Cahall; Analyst; Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Barton Crockett; Analyst; Rosenblatt Securities, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Liberty Media Corporation 2024 year-end earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Shane Kleinstein, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Shane Kleinstein

Thank you, and good morning. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that this call includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in the most recent Form 10-K followed by Liberty Media with the SEC.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and Liberty Media expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Liberty Media's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for Liberty Media, including adjusted OIBDA. The required definition and reconciliations for Liberty Media Schedule 1 can be found at the end of the earnings press release issued today, which is available on Liberty Media's website.
Speaking on the call today, we have Liberty's President and CEO, Derek Chang; Liberty's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wendling; Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, and other members of Liberty management will be available for Q&A.
With that, I will turn the call over to Derek.

Derek Chang

Great. Thank you, Shane. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be speaking with all of you today. For those of you who don't know, while I officially started as Liberty's CEO 27 days ago, my relationship with Liberty Media goes back to 1997 when I first met John while working for TCI.
We've had many points of professional overlap over the years at DirecTV, Starz, and more. Most recently, I've been fortunate to serve on Liberty's Board since 2021. As a Board member, I am uniquely familiar with the Liberty structure, culture, and mandate, which has enabled a seamless and efficient transition to CEO as we hit the ground running with a busy year ahead.
Even as a director for years, we've been asked, what is the long-term Liberty playbook? The answer has been consistent. The Liberty playbook is one of constant evolution, maximum flexibility and an appreciation for change to drive long-term shareholder value. That is and will remain true going forward.
Our team will speak in more detail about the businesses, but I'll make some brief remarks first regarding our near-term priorities for 2025. First, we are working towards the close of the Dorna acquisition. The MotoGP season kicks off in Thailand on March 2.
There will be a 22-race calendar compared to 20 races in 2024, featuring a new track in Hungary and a return to the Czech Republic for the first time since 2020. We expect an exciting season ahead.
MotoGP unveiled a new brand refresh and identity at the end of last season, aimed at expanding its cultural relevance beyond racing. We look forward to working with Dorna to take this sport to the next level on closing.
The Phase 2 regulatory process is progressing, which is a more in-depth review by the European Commission and not uncommon in major transactions like these. We extended the long stop date for regulatory clearance to June 30, 2025, and are working constructively with the regulators towards approval.
Our second priority is continuing our path towards structural simplification and better highlighting the value of our Live Nation equity stake. And finally, we will continue to drive the momentum at Formula One. The sport is coming off a record 2024 with high visibility into an excellent year ahead.
I have spent a significant amount of time with Stefano and the F1 management team since the start of this year and look forward to supporting them going forward. Chase Carey's involvement and partnership as a Liberty Board member has and will continue to be important as we leverage his expertise to continue momentum at F1.
I do want to touch specifically on the Las Vegas Grand Prix as this is a key area of focus. Please note that we don't provide specific economics for any Grand Prix. Particularly for Vegas, we see material benefit accrue from LVGP to the broader F1 ecosystem, across sponsorship, hospitality live entertainment, licensing and data.
Vegas has served as a very successful test bed for product expansion and played a key role in F1's growth in the Americas, which is a continued focus. The event we held recently at the O2 in London and the upcoming F1 movie are also powerful marketing engine for all of our F1 fans, but particularly for Vegas and the North American fans.
2024 stand-alone event economics for Vegas missed internal expectations on revenue and OIBDA. The team has moved very quickly, however, to enact changes that will benefit 2025 and support a financially successful race for F1 and continued growth and positive impact for the Las Vegas community.
We now have two years of real data to understand what tickets and products sold well the demographics of the fan base and the overall cost structure of the event. As a result, we are making further revisions to ticket product and pricing strategy, leveraging this data and as importantly, we are actively managing our cost structure.
Given the halo effect to F1 we've discussed, we reorganized the structure of LVGP last month to integrate it fully into our London team and maximize those continued benefits. This change leverages the strong organization we have in London today across commercial, finance and more.
At the same time, we are bolstering certain parts of the local Vegas team. This includes bringing the ticketing sales function back in-house and offering a high-touch on-the-ground presence, which was a key learning from last year. We will continue our partnership with Quint and benefit from their expertise in VIP hospitality and F1 experiences.
Finally, we are also bolstering our partnership with local players. We believe that continuing to expand the F1 platform in bold and new ways is critical and ultimately leads to both increased and new sources of revenue.
We want to take these opportunities for long-term benefit even if there are early bumps in the road. We have a clear handle on near-term priorities for Vegas to improve, and we are confident in the value it provides. I look forward to sharing more as we progress.
With that, I want to thank John, the Board and the Liberty team once again for this opportunity. To our analysts and shareholders, I look forward to getting to know you better in the months and years ahead. Now I'll turn it over to Brian for more on our financial results.