Senators Warren and Sanders Join Congressman Castro in Letter Expressing Concerns Over Venu Sports
Senators Warren and Sanders Join Congressman Castro in Letter Expressing Concerns Over Venu Sports
Congressman Joaquin Castro was joined by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a letter urging scrutiny for Venu.
Venu Sports is continuing to draw added layers of scrutiny from lawmakers in the United States. The joint venture service being produced by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery has already been promised a review by the Department of Justice for antitrust violations, and is the subject of a lawsuit from Fubo, which alleges that the service is indeed running afoul of federal antitrust laws. Congress has already expressed concern about the product, and a new letter from Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) regarding the service shows that lawmakers are not satisfied with the answers they’ve been given by the three companies so far.
Key Details:
- The new letter urges the FCC and the DOJ to examine Venu closely for antitrust violations.
- Concerns abound over the amount of programming Venu would control, and how much power the three companies involved would have over the media landscape.
- Combining in a joint venture “removes all economic incentive” for the three companies to compete for sports rights in the future, the letter says.
Back in April, Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an interview that he expected the joint venture to clear government scrutiny without much difficulty. But clouds immediately began to gather; just a few days after Iger gave that initial interview, Congressman Castro joined Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to produce a letter featuring a series of questions for the three companies, aimed at discovering how much of a threat to competition the streamer would be.
The answers provided to those questions were found to be unsatisfactory, and the latest communique from Capitol Hill likely isn’t encouraging for representatives of Disney, Fox, and WBD. Saying that Venu would distribute more than 80% of all nationally broadcast sports content, the three lawmakers behind the letter wrote that they wanted the JV to be thoroughly examined for any infractions of federal antitrust statutes.
“Venu will consolidate the sports programming of the second, fifth, and ninth highest revenue media companies in the world,” they wrote. “If this JV is permitted to proceed, competitors would be forced to negotiate with Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. for access to over half of the major sporting licensing rights while simultaneously competing against these companies to offer the best product to broadcast or stream these programs.”
The elected officials also say that despite the labeling of Venu as a joint venture, the service will take on many of the hallmarks of a merger, and therefore, must be subject to a rigorous review by both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that it does not cross the line into illegality.
“The description of this deal as a ‘joint venture’ should not prevent antitrust and telecommunications regulators from giving it the scrutiny it deserves,” Castro, Warren, and Sanders said. “We urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to closely examine this JV and oppose it if it violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.”
Venu Sports
Venu Sports was the planned live TV streaming service that would offer sports from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Programming from ESPN+ and on-demand content would also be available, as would broadcasts of NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA games. However, in January 2025, after Fubo and Hulu + Live TV officially merged, Venu’s launch was put on hold thanks to a preliminary injunction. It was only a few days later that the joint venture was officially shut down for good.
Does Letter Help Fubo’s Lawsuit?
Many of the points advanced in the letter from the three congresspeople are echoes of Fubo’s arguments in its antitrust suit against Venu. They discuss the service’s potential to drive competitors out of the market, leaving Disney, Fox, and WBD able to set the price for Venu wherever they want and exercise outsized control over the sports broadcasting market.
The letter also raises the point that channel owners do not allow cable channel distributors like Fubo to create slimmed-down channel packages on the scale of Venu, instead forcing them to carry less popular channels in order to get access to premier networks like ESPN, FS1, and TNT. The lawmakers’ letter cites various precedents of past instances in which the DOJ stopped industries from creating products that it believes are analogous to Venu, and concludes that the DOJ should “take immediate action to block it if it violates antitrust law, or if it does not serve the ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity.’”
The issue of Venu is complex and multifaceted, and many of the questions surrounding it can only be resolved with time. The first major decision in the case could come as soon as Friday; if Fubo is granted the preliminary injunction that it is seeking against Venu, it could be months or even years before the service is allowed to be brought to market, if it ever is.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service offering a robust lineup of approximately 150 premier channels, with plans starting at $63.99 per month. This entry-level package provides access to local broadcast affiliates 18 of the leading 35 cable channels channels, and valuable regional sports networks (RSNs).