Plans for Venu may be scrapped, but broadcasters will continue to seek ways to serve streaming … [+]
Legal challenges, competition concerns, and a strategic pivot this week spelled the end for Venu, a promised streaming service from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, intended to bring their collective sports broadcasting assets into a single platform.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the partners released in a statement. “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.”
Venu, first announced in February 2024, intended to provide a more affordable package of live sports channels compared to traditional cable TV, competing with FuboTV and YouTube TV.
Content would have included sports from ESPN, ABC, Fox Sports, and TNT.
But Venu faced legal and market challenges from the start.
Designed as a “skinny bundle,” it was intended to serve as a bridge between old cable packages bloated with channels sports consumers might not want and the à la carte streaming services that pinpoint a specific interest.
Two weeks after Venu was announced, FuboTV sued the companies, claiming the venture would stifle competition and increase prices.
In August, a judge temporarily blocked Venu’s launch, agreeing that the collaboration would reduce competition and restrain trade.
Disney confronted the suit by merging its Hulu + Live TV service with FuboTV and agreeing to license ESPN and other sports content to FuboTV. It is now positioned to launch its new ESPN streaming service, dubbed “Flagship,” in August 2025.
This service will include all of ESPN’s programming and integrate ESPN’s fantasy and wagering platforms.
“Buying a 70% stake in Fubo gives them the scale to roll out the Flagship product to a bigger market,” Drew Lerner, a senior writer and editor at Awful Announcing, said. “I think a lot of people in the industry thought Venu was doomed from the start.
“The heart of it is that Disney is going to be launching [its] own direct-to-consumer service, and that lessened the need for Venu Sports.”
Lerner said the decision to scrap Venu was supported by all three partners, but it leaves Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery needing to make something happen on their own.
He speculated that the two might still end up partnering, as Fox has what Warner Bros. Discovery needs, and Warner Bros. Discovery has what Fox needs.
“Fox has the NFL and a broadcast channel that Warner Bros. Discovery does not, so it makes a natural partnership for them,” he said. “Warner Bros. Discovery has the Max streaming service. Fox doesn’t have its own direct-to-consumer platform as of yet, and they will need to—if they want to survive long-term—find a way to reach consumers via a DTC platform.”
Lerner said that in the near term, Fox will likely reach out to Disney to get on the Hulu Live TV platform through a licensing deal and seek to leverage its sports rights in as many ways as possible.
As far as the future of the skinny sports bundle that might serve the needs of the largest number of consumers, Lerner said a solution is yet to be identified.
“I’m a firm believer that Venu would have served a sports fan that might have a wide interest in sports but perhaps doesn’t want the rest,” he said. “At some point, there will be consolidation. It’s just a matter of finding that form factor that makes sense for consumers.”
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