Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery Call Fubo a ‘Weak Competitor’ in Fiery Response to Lawsuit

There’s no love lost between the triumvirate of companies that are building the Venu Sports streaming service and sport-focused live TV streaming service Fubo. Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery first announced they were at work on Venu Sports in February, and the announcement was quickly followed by an antitrust lawsuit from Fubo. That case is still ramping up, but last week Disney, Fox, and WBD had the chance to respond to Fubo in court, and the three companies did not hold back or wilt in the face of legal pressure.

Key Details:

• The three companies still plan to launch Venu Sports this fall.
• Their response to Fubo’s suit says antitrust laws protect competition, not competitors.
• Fubo struggles to compete against other live TV services because it does not do anything unique or better, they say.

According to the timeline for Fubo's antitrust suit that was first laid out in April, Disney, Fox, and WBD had until July 25 to make a formal response to Fubo’s request for a preliminary injunction that would stop Venu Sports from being sold to customers once it’s ready this fall.

Last week, the three companies let loose when giving that response. In court documents, they paraphrase sports attorney Chris Deubert, who said in February that “antitrust law protects competition. It does not protect competitors.”

Fubo is attempting to argue that the introduction of Venu Sports will consolidate the market to a level that is anti-consumer. The service will combine 14 sports and broadcast channels on a single streaming service, including ABC, ESPN, Fox, FS1, and TNT, as well as content from ESPN+ and Max.

In striking back against Fubo’s arguments, the three companies said that the streamer was just trying to protect itself from a competing service that stands a good chance of sapping away some of its business. Fubo’s failure to offer a superior product that stands out from the likes of DIRECTV STREAM, Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV is not the fault of the defendants, Disney, Fox, and WBD said.

“Because Fubo does nothing different or better than other companies, it has long struggled to stay afloat in a highly competitive market,” they wrote in their response to the suit. They also said that Fubo “is (and always has been) a weak competitor.”

Will Venu Launch On Time, or Not?

The defendants also pledged to bring Venu Sports to market by this fall, which is in line with the originally announced launch date. WBD CEO David Zaslav has promised that Venu Sports will be a “contemporary product” that allows viewers to find top sporting events with ease.

All along, Fubo has contended that the three defendants have acted in bad faith when it comes to Venu. It says that Disney, Fox, and WBD have never allowed it to sell slimmed-down channel bundles like Venu will essentially do, and that the companies have charged excessive licensing rates to allow it to keep their channels available.

One problem for Fubo in trying to advance its arguments may be that, historically, it has tried to be a slimmed-down streaming service that focused only on sports. When Fubo launched in 2015, it was focused on soccer streaming, but the company soon realized it would have to expand its channel offerings if it wanted a sustainable audience. More and more channels followed until the Fubo of today — which costs more than $90 per month at minimum when factoring in regional sports network fees — was created.

Many experts are apprehensive about Fubo’s chances to stop Venu, but it won’t take much longer to find out. If the court plans to issue a preliminary injunction to stop Venu before it hits the market in the fall, that injunction will likely be handed down in the coming weeks. If it does not issue such a stay, it could be an indication that Fubo’s lawsuit is already in deep trouble.