Disney doesn’t like the idea of taking no for an answer. The company is partially responsible for the creation of Venu Sports, a joint venture streaming service that is in legal limbo thanks to an ongoing antitrust lawsuit by the live TV streaming service Fubo. Instead of waiting for the process to play out in the courts, however, Disney and Fubo have announced a shocking agreement that will combine Hulu + Live TV and Fubo’s live streamer. While both companies have confirmed the deal, there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this groundbreaking deal, so we will do our best to identify and address them as best as possible.

All the unanswered questions we have about Fubo and Hulu + Live TV merger

What happens to Venu Sports?

While the combination of two of the largest live-streaming services is obviously the biggest part of this story, another major component is the fact that Fubo has reached settlements with Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery to end its anti-trust litigation around Venu Sports. This means that the new sports service has cleared its largest hurdle to launching. Initially, Venu had hoped to launch last August, but following an injunction preventing that, the companies behind the service had hoped to have the platform available this month, in time for the college football and NFL playoffs.

In a press release confirming the deal, it was confirmed that Fubo will be able to create a new “Sports & Broadcast service” incorporating Disney-owned channels like ABC and ESPN. That certainly sounds as if Fubo will be able to sell a Venu-like package with fewer channels under its own brand after the merger, which will make it that much harder for any other company to make an antitrust argument against Venu in the future.

Since Fubo and DIRECTV will now be able to distribute smaller, sports-focused channel bundles of their own, other companies will have a bigger hill to climb to claim that Venu constitutes an antitrust violation.

But how much demand will there be for Venu considering Disney already has an ESPN streaming service dubbed Flagship coming to market? Will the combination of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo negate the need for Venu? There is still plenty to sort out on this front.

Will Fubo’s brand continue to exist?

The newly merged service will be approximately 70% owned by Disney, but the Fubo and Hulu + Live TV brands will continue to be separate. So, how much synergy will there be between Hulu + Live TV and Fubo? Currently, Fubo offers three English-language plans and a Latino plan, but will all those packages continue to survive in the future?

While Disney will own the majority of the new company, Fubo’s CEO David Gandler and current management team will run the operation. Does this mean that perhaps the two services will offer drastically different streaming options? In a press release, the companies said that the deal “will facilitate an enhanced choice of programming packages and address a variety of consumer preferences at attractive price points.”

That could perhaps mean that Hulu + Live TV will lean into the general entertainment brand associated with its on-demand platform and provide a cheaper streaming option that doesn’t include the high-cost sports channels.

Conversely, this could result in Fubo finally being able to shed some of the non-sports channels that have driven up the cost of its service over the years. Last month, Fubo announced a new Essentials plan that keeps its subscription cost down by not including regional sports networks. Additional package options are undoubtedly forthcoming given the flexibility provided by this deal.

Will Fubo now include the Disney Bundle?

Hulu + Live TV and Fubo will continue to be separate offerings in the deal, but Hulu + Live TV customers are accustomed to getting free access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ as part of their subscription at no extra cost. The Disney Bundle comes standard in most Hulu + Live TV plans, but will it be included with Fubo going forward as well?

The deal doesn’t include any part of the on-demand Hulu business, which Disney is still in the process of fully purchasing from Comcast. It potentially faces the task of forking over an additional check to Comcast for its former stake in the streamer, but it doesn’t look as if Fubo will get a share.

The two companies did confirm that Hulu + Live TV will still include the Disney Bundle, meaning that subscribers will continue to receive access to the Hulu on-demand library, Disney+, and ESPN+ at no extra cost. However, there is no expectation that Fubo subscribers will receive the same benefits.

Will Fubo get Warner Bros. Discovery channels now?

Fubo hasn’t carried the Turner Channels channels including TBS and TNT since 2020, when a dispute over carriage fees knocked the networks off the streamer. Then last year, the service lost access to other Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks like HGTV and [Invesitgation Discovery]. Hulu + Live TV, on the other hand, has a full complement of WBD channels, and since the new company will be majority-owned by Disney, it opens up the possibility that these channels could be brought back to Fubo at some point in the future.

However, Disney and Fubo did say that, “The combined company will negotiate carriage agreements with content providers for both Hulu + Live TV and Fubo services.” Since Fubo’s management team will be handling those negotiations, it is possible that WBD will remain steadfast on its demands, keeping all of its channels off of the service.

Will Hulu + Live TV or Fubo cost more?

It seems likely that the price of Fubo will be increased at some point in the near future, especially if it does get WBD-owned channels back. Hulu + Live TV increased its subscription rate in October, and since the brands will remain separate to start, I’m guessing it will stay at the same price for at least a few months.

However, the additional freedom provided by the agreement to craft smaller, more genre-specific packages will likely mean that customers will have more options to choose from than just the largest, most-expensive packages. The companies said on Monday that they expect ” to enhance consumer choice through more flexible programming offerings.”

What those offerings will be is still to be determined, but this appears to be a major win for customers looking to lower their monthly streaming bills by getting rid of channels that they do not watch.

What happens to regional sports networks on Fubo and Hulu + Live TV?

Fubo is one of the only live TV services that carries a large selection of regional sports networks (RSNs), including FanDuel Sports Network channels. My guess is that Disney will continue to make RSNs available through Fubo only, and not migrate them to Hulu + Live TV as well. That will allow customers to choose what they pay for in regard to sports programming.

Will Hulu + Live TV see big changes?

According to the press release confirming the merger of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, the combined service will be operated by Fubo’s current management team, including the company’s current CEO David Gandler. The Fubo management team might have some big ideas about how to improve Hulu + Live TV, or they may decide to leave the service more or less as-is.

While eventually it would make sense for the combined company to move both platforms onto the same tech stack as a cost-cutting measure, it does not appear that initially either service will change much. While eliminating redundancies is one of the easiest ways to increase profits, for the time being Disney and Fubo are indicating that the two streamers will remain as they are.

Will government regulators quash the deal?

The combination of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo would create a live TV streamer that has 6.2 million North American subscribers. Only YouTube TV has more, having revealed in February 2024 that it had 8 million customers.

With an oncoming Republican administration, it seems less likely that regulators would get too heavily involved in the merger of Fubo and Hulu + Live TV. There’s still plenty of competition in live TV streaming, and Disney has often touted how many friends it has on both sides of the political aisle when it comes to making big business deals.