Confirmed: Full Versions of ABC, Fox, TNT, More to Stream on Disney, Fox, WBD Sports Service; How Still to Be Unresolved

Earlier this month, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery shocked the entertainment and sports worlds by announcing that the three companies would be coming together in a joint venture to launch a streaming service that will unite all of their sports broadcasting rights. The new platform is slated to launch this fall, presumably in time for the new college football and basketball, NBA, NFL, and NHL seasons, all of which will feature heavily on the streamer. The companies announced that the service will offer livestreams of all of the channels owned by the three media giants that show sports, and while that seems fairly straightforward, considering that not all of the companies’ channels exclusively air sports content, it does raise questions about what viewers can expect to see from the more entertainment-focused networks under the companies’ umbrella.

Key Points:

• The joint sports streaming venture will include live-streams of 14 linear networks, not all of which are sports-specific.
• The Streamable has confirmed that subscribers will get 24/7 feeds of ABC, Fox, and the Turner cable channels.
• It has not yet been determined if ABC and Fox will supply market-specific local affiliates or national feeds.

Disney, Fox, and WBD own a significantly large portion of the sports broadcasting rights in the United States — up to 85% according to some distributors — with every major professional league and college conference represented, not to mention major golf, tennis, and soccer matches from around the world as well. All three of the conglomerates own multiple channels that air live games and other sports programming and Disney and WBD both also broadcast streaming-exclusive games as well.

Thanks to the breadth of all three media entities involved, however, the sports rights do not reside exclusively on sports-specific networks, meaning that games and matches often take place on broadcast and cable networks that are primarily entertainment-based. However, in the press release announcing the formation of the joint venture, the three companies indicated that not only would their full complement of sports-specific channels be included, but they also be including their more general-interest channels that carry sports content as well.

“By subscribing to this focused, all-in-one premier sports service, fans would have access to the linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+,” the companies announced.

While the release did not confirm if the United States Men’s and Women’s National Soccer Team matches that air exclusively on Max will be included, the conglomeration of channels does make for an impressive offering for sports fans. However, with the inclusion of ABC, Fox, TBS, TNT, and truTV, subscribers will seemingly be able to receive more than just sports programming.

The initial details about these channels’ inclusion on the platform were light, so The Streamable reached out to all three media organizations involved for some clarity. We are able to confirm that full versions of all channels listed in the introductory press release will be included on the streaming service when it launches, whether they are sports-specific channels or not.

That means that you will be able to watch “Abbott Elementary” on ABC, “The Masked Singer” on Fox, your favorite reruns on TBS and TNT, and “Impractical Jokers” on truTV in addition to all of the sports programming.

While that is the current plan, what seems to still be up in the air is how that will work. This is far easier for the WBD-owned channels; while there will be traditional pay-TV distributors upset about it, TBS, TNT, and truTV do not have local affiliates occupying specific broadcast hours every day. A WBD representative did confirm to The Streamable that the company will be including full simulcasts of their channels on the platform, and that the “same will be true for all networks.”

However, since ABC and Fox do have to contend with local affiliates, how they will bring their channels to the stream has yet to be determined. The simplest solution would be for both networks to supply a national feed, similar to what Paramount did with CBS during a dispute between live TV streaming service Fubo and the CBS affiliate board last year.

The other more likely option is that both companies will make arrangements with the local affiliates to include around-the-clock simulcasts in the app, like Peacock and Paramount+ do with local NBC and CBS affiliates respectively.

“Our plan would be to work collaboratively with local broadcast affiliate partners in a similar manner to the successful approach with DMVPDs [digital multichannel video programming distributors],” an ESPN representative told The Streamable.

In a conspicuously coordinated statement, a Fox spokesperson similarly told The Streamable, “Our plan would be to work collaboratively with local broadcast affiliate partners.”

While the mechanics of how it will work seem to still be undecided, barring any regulatory roadblocks or significant pushback from major sports leagues, it does appear that subscribers to the new Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture will get more than just live sports when it launches this fall.

Whether or not these extra entertainment and local news enticements are enough to entice additional consumers to leave other pay-TV options behind in favor of this new streamer is yet to be seen, but including entertainment content on top of the promised sports programming can only be seen as a positive, given the increasingly fractured state of the streaming industry.