Liberty scoffs at F1 TV deal in US

Liberty Media chief executive Greg Maffei has scoffed at the amount paid for F1's television rights by the American broadcaster NBC.

Headed by US media tycoon John Malone, Liberty has talked about expanding F1 within America and borrowing from the successes of popular US sports events like the Super Bowl.

However, chief executive Maffei scoffed at the reported $3m (£2.5m) paid by NBC to televise the races.

"The US is, you know, it's a popcorn fart," Maffei is quoted as saying by Forbes.

"The opportunity is good, certainly in percentage terms, not in absolute dollar terms. It is very low."

NBC's contract runs out at the end of 2017, with Maffei admitting there is scope to see the value of the deal increase.

"We are going to do far better on those renewals to the degree a couple of things happen. First, we have passion, viewership etc and two, the extent there's competition," he said.

The new season gets under way on March 26 with the Australian Grand Prix.