Disney, Fox, and WBD give up on controversial sports streaming app Venu

[Karlston]

Fubo gave in, but DirectTV and Dish were still trying to block Venu's launch.

Credit: Getty

 

Venu Sports, the sports streaming app that Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced as part of a joint venture in February, will no longer launch, the three companies said today.

 

The app was supposed to give subscribers access to all three conglomerates' linear channels that show sports, including ABC, Fox, ESPN, FS1, and TruTV. Original content wasn’t expected to launch with the app, but the joint multichannel video programming distributor was expected to represent about 85 percent of the US sports rights market. The app was planned to cost $43 per month.

 

In a joint statement shared today, the companies said:

 

After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture (JV) and not launch the streaming service. In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.

The news follows concerns from various rivals, sports rights holders, and other critics that the JV would be too powerful and represents an antitrust violation.

 

Shortly after the February announcement of Venu, Fubo, a sports streaming service, filed an antitrust suit against the new venture. Among its claims was that the companies behind Venu forced price hikes onto companies like Fubo by bundling unwanted, irrelevant content with desired sports content. Fubo eventually won a temporary injunction against Venu's launch ahead of a trial originally scheduled for October 2025.

 

But on Monday, Fubo announced that its litigation against the three companies was settled and that Fubo is merging with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV service. Under the terms of the acquisition, Disney would own 70 percent of Fubo, and Fubo would receive an aggregate cash payment of $220 million from Disney, Fox, and WBD when the deal closes. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the deal is expected to take 12 to 18 months to close. Disney and Fubo haven't announced any changes to their merger plans following today's announcement.

 

Although Fubo’s lawsuit against the JV appears to be settled, other rivals in sports television seemed intent on continuing to fight Venu.

 

In a January 9 letter (PDF) to US District Judge Margaret M. Garnett of the Southern District in New York, who granted Fubo’s premliminary injunction against Venu, Michael Hartman, general counsel and chief external affairs officer for DirectTV, wrote that Fubo’s settlement “does nothing to resolve the underlying antitrust violations at issue.” Hartman asked the court to maintain the preliminary injunction against the app’s launch.

 

"The preliminary injunction has protected consumers and distributors alike from the JV Defendant’s scheme to ‘capture demand,’ ‘suppress’ potentially competitive sports bundles, and impose consumer price hikes,” the letter says, adding that DirectTV would continue to explore its options regarding the JV “and other anticompetitive harms.”

 

Similarly, Pantelis Michalopoulos, counsel for EchoStar Corporation, which owns Dish, penned a letter (PDF) to Garnett on January 7, claiming the members of the JV “purchased their way out of their antitrust violation.” Michalopoulos added that the JV defendants “should not be able to pay their way into erasing the Court’s carefully reasoned decision” to temporarily block Venu’s launch.

 

In addition to Fubo, DirecTV, and Dish, ACA Connects (a trade association for small- to medium-sized telecommunication service providers) publicly expressed concerns about Venu. NFL was also reported to be worried about the implications of the venture.

 

Now, the three giants behind Venu are throwing in the towel and abandoning an app that could have garnered a lot of subscribers tired of hopping around apps, channels, and subscriptions to watch all the sports content they wanted. But they're also avoiding a lot of litigation and potential backlash in the process.

 

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