Disney, Fox And Discovery Warner Bros. have canceled plans to launch their sports streaming service, Venu, the companies announced in a joint statement Friday.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to terminate the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” they said in the statement. “In an ever-changing market, we determined it was best to meet the changing demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu so far and grateful to Venu. staff, who we will support throughout this transition period.
Venu was first announced in February and intended to combine the live sports assets of Disney-owned Fox, WBD and ESPN. It was originally planned to launch before the start of the NFL season in September, but was delayed in part by a legal challenge from internet TV provider Fubo, which claimed the platform would be anticompetitive.
Together, Disney, Fox and WBD control more than 50% of all U.S. sports media rights and at least 60% of all U.S. sports rights broadcast nationally, according to the judge overseeing the antitrust case.
The news of its non-launch came as a shock to Venu employees, who learned of it late Thursday evening, according to people familiar with the matter. They thought they had a path forward to launch the service after Disney agreed earlier this week to merge its Hulu+ Live TV with Fuboresolving all disputes regarding Venu.
But the judge’s response in Fubo’s lawsuit called into question the legality of cable bundling in general, prompting Disney to strike a deal with Fubo, whereby Disney would take control of 70 percent of the resulting company. And two days ago, satellite providers DirecTV and Dish sent letters to the federal court, saying the legal questions raised by the judge remained unanswered.
Rather than risk a protracted lawsuit that could jeopardize the consolidation in general – including Disney’s efforts to consolidate its own streaming entities (ESPN, Hulu and Disney+) – the three companies decided to terminate Venu, according to people familiar with the company’s decisions.
An ad for Venu Sports, the sports streaming venture of Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, is hanging at the Fanatics Fest event in New York on August 16, 2024.
Jessica Gold | CNBC
The Warner Bros. business model Discovery relies largely on negotiating bundled carriage deals for its many cable networks, including CNN, TNT, HGTV and Food Network.
Disney is targeting the launch of ESPN “Flagship,” an all-inclusive ESPN streaming service, for August 2025. The as-yet-unnamed ESPN streaming service will include everything that airs on ESPN’s linear network, unlike ESPN+ .
Disney’s deal with Fubo, as well as the recent carriage renewal with DirecTV, also gives the company new ways to offer so-called skinny packages, that is, smaller channel selections for less. ‘money. That was the idea behind Venu: to sell a smaller number of linear channels for less money than traditional cable TV.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.
