Official F1 broadcaster in the country is happy to see the Filipino racing community grow year on year.
Formula 1’s official broadcaster in the Philippines gushed about Filipino racing fans and their engagement with the sport after recently holding a watch party of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix in Makati last Sunday.
Held at Mansion Sports Bar where flocks of Filipino fans saw Mercedes’ George Russell’s drive to victory from pole and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinching the World Driver’s Championship, the watch party was evidence of what broadcaster beIN Sports saw in the Filipino market.
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A rowdy crowd drew in a mix of diverse fans from across the Metro with supporters cheering on their favorite drivers from the other side of the globe.
Seeing the passion upfront and personal, beIN Sports EVP for Marketing, Growth and Consumer for APAC Magdalene Ng spoke about how they see the Philippines as a market for Formula 1.
“What we’ve seen was when we took the broadcast rights for F1, the engagement for the [beIN Sports Connect] app shot up. We’re not talking about two-fold, three-fold, it’s like a 100 times more interest in the app, and that’s the go-to destination now for F1 fans and the F1 engagement in the Philippines is amazing,” Ng told One Sports.
“We see that through, obviously, the events we’ve had with Bianca [Bustamante], and through screening events like these, [we also] see the engagement is not just due to the population of male viewers, but it’s an equal balance of male and female viewers… It’s interesting how the sport has changed, and a lot of it is really driven by the success of Drive to Survive. It has made people emotionally invested in the sport,” she added.
True enough, the watch party did feature a good mix of male and female Filipino F1 fans. But it hasn’t just been on the other side of the screen that beIN Sports Asia has seen this balance.
Rather, they’ve also worked on leveling the playing field in terms of representation on the platform – giving two Filipino racers, Bianca Bustamante and Marlon Stockinger, equal footing when it comes to their media exposure.
In an effort to cater locally to the Philippines, Bustamante and Stockinger have worked closely with the streaming platform to be more relevant not just to the Philippines, but also to the rest of Asia.
Seeing that some of the best products of the sport in the region are Filipino, it wasn’t difficult for Ng and the rest of the beIN Sports Asia team to invest in the Filipino drivers.
“We wanted an Asian face to be able to relate and connect, especially in the Philippines. Marlon is an ex-driver himself, he is a knowledgeable insider in the sport, so he would be able to really provide a different lens, speaking to someone who hasn’t experienced the whole motorsport. He’s been a fabulous add-on to our engagement locally in the Philippines,” said Ng.
“Bianca to us is a no-brainer, she’s a Filipina driver and she’s flying the flag high for Filipinos all-around the world and you know, what she has achieved is so amazing that we just wanted to be able to profile her and give her the exposure that she deserves,” she continued.
Now looking at the future, Ng expects the community to continue to grow in the Philippines and they hope to capitalize on this with more events in the future – including giveaways with local partners to catch the action live and in-person.
“Next year, we want to continue stepping the engagement because we see the fans not shrinking in numbers, they’re growing year on year. I think that’s brought about the current popularity of F1, everybody’s joining in on the bandwagon,” said Ng.