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Back in 2022, ESPN was reportedly paying Liberty Media about $90 million per year for U.S. media rights to Formula One. But these days, amid the league’s cultural resurgence and broader, always-in-overdrive hype machine, many assumed that Liberty would seek a much richer payday on its new U.S. rights deal. In fact, it’s been widely reported that the league hoped to fetch up to twice the current price, or between $150 million and $180 million per year. And in an era when NBA rights are going for $76 billion over a decade, the Savannah Bananas have a Disney deal, and a single holiday NFL game can fetch nine figures, many in the industry assumed there would be a taker.