F1: ESPN plans to stay with F1, eyes adding NASCAR

Speaking on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, ESPN president of programming and original content Burke Magnus said he felt “proud” of the growth the broadcaster had seen with F1 since taking on the rights.

“Kudos to Chase Carey and Sean Bratches, who came to us, and the conversation started and they were solving every problem or every complication that we raised,” Magnus said. “Under the guise of taking a fly at a low-risk, high-reward possibility, we were able to really put our shoulder behind it.

“Despite Drive to Survive being successful, I think we had something to do with it as well, in terms of building the fan base. They made the US fan base a priority, the Liberty guys and F1. Miami is going to be off the charts. The interest there, I cannot even fathom.

“So yeah, we’re very, very bullish on F1. Now that we’ve been in it for four years, we want to continue and ride this wave a lot longer.”

ESPN’s broadcast deal with ends at the end of 2022, but look for an announcement before long that they have renewed with F1.

“I go way back in motorsports, one of my first big breaks at ESPN was I ran the motorsport category in the late 90s and early 2000s,” Magnus said.

“This is back when we had everything. We had F1, we had IndyCar, CART, the Indy 500 on ABC, NHRA drag racing, motocross, super cross, everything – crazy stuff like hydroplane racing, if you recall.

“I’ve always loved the competition around motorsports. NASCAR was an enormous property for us back then, and maybe some day again.”