The streaming service designed to bundle licensing rights from TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney-owned ESPN and Fox Corp. is dead in the water.
The three companies announced in a press release Friday that their proposed Venu Sports platform will not launch, writing in a joint statement that they determined it was best to focus on “existing products and distribution channels.”
Venu Sports was designed to bundle major national sporting events broadcast by the three media giants, targeting cord-cutters seeking to subscribe to one platform. The proposed networks under Venu would have included Atlanta-based TNT, TBS and TruTV, along with ESPN, Fox and ABC, among others, for a cost of $42.99 a month.
Announced in early 2024, Venu was initially scheduled to launch before the NFL season last fall. What got in the way, however, was an antitrust lawsuit filed by sports streaming competitor Fubo, which alleged the three companies engaged in anticompetitive practices and caused harm to consumers. This summer, a federal judge sided with Fubo and delayed the launch.
Earlier this week, Fubo announced it struck a deal with Disney and settled its antitrust lawsuit with all three companies. Under the deal, Fubo will combine its operations with Hulu + Live TV, Disney’s streaming television service offering access to broadcast channels. Together, Fubo and Hulu + Live TV will have more than 6.2 million subscribers in North America, according to the release announcing the deal. (Disney now owns 70% of Fubo.)
The dissolution of Venu is the latest development in the fast-changing landscape of live sports, which has become fragmented amid the rise of streaming TV.
Considered one of the final footholds in drawing consistent audiences to television, live sports is an attractive investment. Higher audiences lead to greater advertising dollars, which, at the end of the day, lead to more money in media companies’ pockets.
After years of favoring scripted content, streaming giants are negotiating for media rights packages, crowding a dealmaking room once dominated by networks. To adjust to changing consumer preferences, legacy networks are migrating their sports coverage into streaming platforms, usually through add-on tiers.
With more media players at the table, leagues are charging higher fees for packages much smaller and less comprehensive than rights deals signed five or 10 years ago. This year, after a monthslong legal squabble, TNT Sports did not renew its existing rights package with the NBA, ending its decades-long streak of airing live NBA games in the U.S. at the end of next season.
If Venu is going away, what’s next? As part of the new deal, Fubo can create a new sports and broadcasting service that includes Disney-owned ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, as well as ESPN+, among other networks, according to Fubo’s release. Further details were not provided.
Fubo and Hulu + Live TV will continue to be available to consumers as separate offerings.
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