Venu Sports, the streaming joint venture from Disney’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery, has been scrapped.
The move is effective immediately.
In a statement, the three companies said: “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture 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.”
A US court had blocked the launch of the service weeks before the start of the new National Football League season, following an antitrust lawsuit from rival Fubo in February.
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery to launch sport streaming service
Analysis: Disney and Fubo tie up
Earlier this week, Disney announced that it is to merge its Hulu + Live TV service with Fubo to create a new company in which it would be the majority owner.
Importantly, the deal settled all litigation between Fubo, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery over Venu Sports, with the settlement worth $220m.
However, in the same week, satellite companies DirecTV and Echostar separately challenged Fubo’s settlement, arguing that it does not resolve existing anti-competition concerns around the venture.
Clearly, despite settling the Fubo case, Venu Sports’ parents would have faced continued resistance from other players in what could have become a protracted legal process to roll out the offering. Instead, the venture was binned.
Sports rights battle continues
The end of Venu Sports does not mean the end of the fight for sports rights or the likelihood of other bundling ventures.
Sport remains one of few events that could reliably attract large, linear audiences. The creation of Venu Sports was intended as a collaborative effort by traditional broadcasters to put themselves in a strong position to compete against streaming platforms, which have demonstrated a high interest in moving into live sports.
Towards the end of 2024, Netflix managed to attract a peak of 65m concurrent streams globally for its first foray into boxing when it broadcast the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight. In addition, Netflix showed two NFL games on Christmas Day for the first time.
Among other notable sports rights deals involving streaming platforms, Amazon Prime Video is to share National Basketball Association coverage with Disney and Comcast, while Apple TV+ has Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer rights.
Meanwhile, with Venu Sports no more, what are Fox and Warner Bros Discovery’s plans? A Business Insider report has suggested that Fox could end up licensing its sports programming rights to the new Disney-Fubo venture instead.
NBA rights deal highlights importance of live sports and impact of streaming
