JV Sports Streamer Launches Internal Beta; Fox CEO Says Bundles With Other Subscription Streamers Make Most Sense
Lachlan Murdoch offered a few new details on the JV streamer this week, including the fact that it does indeed have an as-yet unshared name.
Executives from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery have been quite guarded in offering details regarding their new joint venture sports streaming service. Some of that caginess is no doubt due to the fact that the companies are facing a lawsuit from Fubo over concerns that the service will violate antitrust laws, but Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch was given the chance to talk about the JV when discussing Tubi’s quarterly earnings results on the traditional conference call with Wall Street analysts. He didn’t reveal many new tidbits, but he did have reassuring words for audiences who are afraid it won’t meet its target launch date of fall 2023, as well as for cable channel distributors like Fubo who are concerned the streamer will bring down the entire pay-TV market.
Key Details:
- Murdoch says that a private, internal beta test for the JV platform has been launched.
- He reiterated the streamer is intended to target cord-cutters and cord-nevers, not to cannibalize cable and satellite audiences.
- Tubi doesn’t make sense as a bundling partner for the service, but subscription video streamers like Paramount+ and Peacock are more logical.
There wasn’t much meat to chew on in Murdoch’s newest comments regarding the JV, but he did confirm that the platform has a name, though he refused to reveal it publicly. Analysts have taken to calling the service “Spulu,” a portmanteau of “Sports-Hulu,” referencing Hulu’s original split ownership structure which was similar to that of the JV.
Murdoch also revealed that the service has entered a beta testing phase, though it will not be public. He said that engineers at all three companies were “running at full pace” to ensure the streamer is finished by the promised fall 2024 delivery date, and referenced former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad, who has been named as CEO of the service.
“He is off to a flying start,” Murdoch said. “We can’t wait to launch it this fall.”
There was also an opportunity for Murdoch to talk about the streamer in the context of bundling. He said that offering the product with a free streamer like Fox’s Tubi didn’t make much sense, but that it was more logical to bundle it with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, particularly ones that offer live sports. WBD CEO David Zaslav has already confirmed that the JV will be offered in a bundle with his company’s SVOD service Max, and bundling options with Disney+ and Hulu seem likely as well.
But to get the most out of the product, viewers would be best served if they could purchase a bundle of the JV with Paramount+ and/or Peacock. As it stands, viewers who only watch the sports JV will have no way to access NFL games on CBS, nor will they get “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. That’s before entering into discussions of the wide range of other sports on Peacock, or the fact that it may steal NBA rights away from WBD in the near future. Therefore, Peacock and Paramount+ both make sense as bundle partners with the JV, though whether Paramount Global or Comcast are amenable to creating such packages remains to be seen, especially given Paramount’s current position as a company on the sale block.
Did Murdoch Offer a Preview of Disney, Fox, WBD’s Legal Arguments in Favor of JV?
As mentioned, the joint venture service faces a lawsuit from Fubo to try and stop it from reaching customers. Fubo joined with other pay-TV companies like DIRECTV and DISH in writing a letter to Congress urging further investigation, and a Department of Justice review over potential antitrust concerns also looms.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in April that the three companies involved in the JV are proceeding as though they’ll triumph over all these obstacles, but Murdoch took the chance this week to reiterate a point he's made before: that the JV is not intended to steal cable and satellite audiences, but rather is meant to target cord-cutters and cord-nevers who are not currently receiving pay-TV channels from any source.
“We are wholly and fundamentally supportive of the traditional cable television bundle,” Murdoch said. “It will continue to be, for a very long time, our number one revenue stream. And we are all in to support our distributors in every way we can in that bundle and supporting their subscribers and their business.
“It’s frankly important to us that because we are so invested in the cable bundle, that the sports joint venture will be very targeted and very focused on the nontraditional pay TV viewer universe,” he continued. “And we think we can very cleverly, in a very targeted way market to those subscribers so that we minimize any cannibalization of traditional subscribers.”
Murdoch’s words aren’t likely to soothe Fubo CEO David Gandler, who has called the struggle against the JV a “duel to the death.” But they could form the heart of Disney, Fox and WBD’s arguments in favor of their new service in court, where they’ll try to make the case that their JV won’t be the industry-breaker that cable and satellite companies insist it will be.
The timeline for the Fubo lawsuit has been set, so audiences will have more clarity on whether they’ll actually be allowed to buy the JV streamer this year or not soon. If the platform does clear government scrutiny, however, Murdoch wants viewers to rest assured that it will be available to subscribe to this fall, and perhaps with multiple bundling options.
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