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Venu Sports’ ambitious streaming venture is no more. Despite major investments from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, the sports-streaming service has shut down without ever hitting the market. We break down how the saga unfolded and what it means for the media giants involved.
—Eric Fisher and Colin Salao
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Venu Sports, the embattled sports-streaming service whose big ambitions never made it to a public debut, is no more, as co-owners ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery decided to shut down the venture, effective immediately.
The surprise move arrives just four days after ESPN’s parent company Disney settled a lawsuit from Fubo Inc. surrounding Venu Sports in the most dramatic way—acquiring a majority stake in Fubo and creating a joint venture with that company. Fubo had previously argued, with initial success, that Venu Sports violated U.S. antitrust law, helping keep the service from ever reaching consumers.
Immediately following the Disney-Fubo deal to create a joint venture also involving Disney’s Hulu + Live TV, industry sources told Front Office Sports that it was still the Venu Sports partners’ firm intention to bring the service to market, though a timetable was uncertain.
Satellite TV carriers DirecTV and EchoStar, however, then filed letters with the U.S. District Court this week, arguing that the Disney-Fubo deal and its resulting dismissal of legal claims did not “address the underlying competition issues,” and that Disney simply paid Fubo “to ensure cooperation from an aggrieved competitor.”
The Venu Sports shutdown decision arrived nearly a year after the streaming venture was first unveiled, initially without the brand name.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture, and not launch the streaming service,” the partners said in a joint 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. We are proud of the work to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”
The three media entities had each invested more than $400 million into Venu Sports.
The demise of Venu Sports allows for some greater simplicity in an increasingly crowded and complex streaming marketplace. Disney already has ESPN+, the joint venture with Fubo, and the forthcoming Flagship direct-to-consumer version of ESPN that Disney CEO Bob Iger has called “the best product the consumer has ever seen in sports.”
WBD, meanwhile, continues on its strategy of placing its sports on the Max streaming service, particularly as it retools its rights portfolio. Fox, whose streaming strategy in many respects has been less pronounced than other major U.S. media entities, perhaps had the most to gain from Venu Sports. Still, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch had tamped down expectations around the venture, however, suggesting last year it would take five years to reach five million subscribers.
Much of the early discussion around Venu Sports also centered on the breadth of sports content not included in the service, including anything from NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and regional sports networks.
The whole saga is also a huge victory for Fubo cofounder and CEO David Gandler. After previously saying the arrival of Venu Sports would be an existential threat to Fubo’s business, he has since overseen the demise of the venture, as well as a new lease on his own company’s life with the Disney deal that provides a $220 million payment to settle the outstanding legal claims, a new carriage agreement with several ESPN networks, and a supplemental $145 million loan scheduled for January 2026.
Fubo stock, meanwhile, continues to soar. The company’s shares rose another 11% to open Friday’s trading, adding to a broader surge of more than 300% this week.
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The NBA’s top two teams faced off Wednesday, but it was unclear whether fans would pay attention to a matchup between the Cavaliers and Thunder, two small-market darlings. The numbers are in, and while they aren’t spectacular, they are a positive for the NBA.
Cleveland and Oklahoma City drew 1.87 million viewers on ESPN, about 8% more than the 1.72 million average per national TV game this season—which includes the five-game Christmas Day slate that drew 5.32 million viewers. The game averaged 20% more than the comparable window last year, a Pelicans-Warriors game that featured Steph Curry, one of the league’s biggest viewership draws, but ended in a 141–105 blowout.
The Cavaliers and Thunder, both of whom are on pace to win 70 or more games, delivered an exciting game on the court that featured 30 lead changes and zero double-digit advantages. The game peaked at 2.5 million viewers in the fourth quarter.
The two teams also generated strong buzz on social media—which has been one of the NBA’s strong suits, even when measured against the NFL. The Cavaliers and Thunder created 416 million social media impressions Wednesday, according to Talkwalker.
They meet again in Oklahoma City on Thursday in a game that will air on TNT.
The NBA’s declining viewership was a sour subject through the first two months of the season. The league was facing an 18% viewership decline entering Christmas, but following Wednesday’s slate, is down about 4% versus last year.
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The Eagles and Packers are both historic NFL franchises, but they have faced off only three times in the NFL playoffs. The two teams played the NFL’s second game of the season, a 34–29 Philly victory, but since then, both defenses have stepped up and become among the league’s best.
Still, Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love might give us the best quarterback matchup in the opening round, and both teams have real title hopes. That’s why, according to TickPick, Sunday afternoon’s game is the most expensive wild-card matchup this year, with an average purchase price of $444.
Green Bay–Philadelphia is also the third-most-expensive wild-card game on record. The current get-in price is nothing to sneeze at, either: It costs $298 minimum to enter Lincoln Financial Field.
For more ticketing trends and insights, check out our Big Ticket Trend Report, presented by TickPick, and get $15 off your first purchase of $99+ with code FOS15.
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The 2025 tennis calendar is off and running with this weekend’s start of the Australian Open, the first major of the year, featuring another record purse that showcases further the sharp escalation in the sport’s player compensation.
The tournament features an event-record total purse of $96.5 million in Australian dollars (more than $59 million in U.S. currency), up by 12% from a year ago, and more than twice the level of a decade ago. The latest figure extends the trend of double-digit-percentage increases seen annually across the four majors, most recently with the 2024 US Open that set a tennis record with a $75 million purse. Australian Open singles champions will each receive $3.5 million in Australian dollars ($2.15 million U.S.), up more than 11%.
As was the case in 2024, the Australian Open will help set the financial tone in tennis for the rest of the year, though a weakening of the country’s dollar in recent months does hamper players’ conversion to their native currencies somewhat.
The tournament’s defending champions, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka (who also won in 2023), each return to Melbourne as the sport’s current No. 1 players, and they are betting favorites to prevail again—lending a clear sense of competitive superiority for those top talents.
The dominant storyline for the Australian Open at the outset, however, surrounds doping cases in the sport, particularly a still-open one for Sinner and another for Iga Świątek, currently the women’s No. 2 player in the world.
In Sinner’s case, he tested positive last year for trace amounts of the anabolic steroid clostebol, initially considered to be an accidental result of contact with a trainer who used the substance. The World Anti-Doping Agency is appealing Sinner’s initial exoneration by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, and a final ruling is expected after the Australian Open.
Świątek, meanwhile, accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for TMZ, a banned heart medication she said she was taking for jet lag and sleep-related issues. After initially missing three late-season events last fall for what was described as “personal reasons,” the suspension ultimately became public.
“We started, yeah, with ‘personal issues’ because I also needed time to figure everything out,” she said.
The continued swirl of doping-related scrutiny and suspicion, meanwhile, continues to loom large over the sport, and this event in particular. Emma Raducanu said she recently left an allergic reaction to insect bites untreated for fear of triggering a positive doping test.
“I was just left there with my swollen ankle and hand,” Raducanu said. “I’m just, ‘I’m going to tough it out,’ because I don’t want to risk it.”
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$28.5 million
The one-year salary agreement between the Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., settling an arbitration claim in the star first baseman’s final season of club control before he reaches free agency. The figure is the third-largest salary for an arbitration-eligible player in league history, trailing only Juan Soto’s $31 million for 2024 and Shohei Ohtani’s $30 million the year before. Guerrero, elevating his salary sharply from a prior $19.9 million, was the leading figure in a flurry of deals this week around MLB for arbitration-eligible players. His impending free agency will be a major storyline going forward, as he is seen as a player who could challenge or break the $1 billion threshold for a total MLB contract.
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Abdul Carter ⬆ The Penn State defensive end has declared for the NFL draft, his agent Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN. The All-American is the No. 1 overall player on ESPN’s draft board and is expected to be the first defensive player selected in April.
Marcus Freeman ⬆ The Notre Dame head coach will be the first Black and Asian head coach to coach in an FBS national championship game. “I hope all coaches, minorities, Black, Asian, white it doesn’t matter—great people continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this,” Freeman said after leading the Fighting Irish to a win in the Orange Bowl.
Notre Dame ⬆ The Fighting Irish have won $20 million from the College Football Playoff by advancing to the national championship game. Because Notre Dame is an independent school, it will keep all its winnings, while all other CFP schools will share with their respective conferences.
Drew Allar ⬆⬇ With Thursday night’s Orange Bowl tied at 24 and just 33 seconds remaining, the Penn State quarterback threw an interception, setting up Notre Dame’s game-winning field goal. The 20-year-old was visibly distraught following the loss and a rough showing (135 yards on 12-of-23 passing), but he has a shot at redemption since he’s said he plans to return to Penn State next year. Should he reverse course and declare for the NFL Draft, he could be the third-ranked quarterback behind Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward.
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