Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery say Venu Sports won’t launch
Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery say Venu Sports won’t launch
The joint venture sports streamer was to carry live streams of 14 sports-related channels from the three companies.
It’s been a roller-coaster of a week for Disney. The company started things out on Monday by announcing that it would merge its live TV streaming service Hulu + Live TV with Fubo, which seemingly cleared the way to launch its joint venture streamer Venu Sports. Venu was supposed to be brought to market as a joint venture by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery to deliver sports-related programming at a lower price than traditional live streamers. However, it never reached the public thanks to an antitrust lawsuit brought by Fubo in February 2024. Then earlier this week, it appeared as if its path to customers had been cleared by the announcement that Disney would become the primary owner of Fubo. But on Friday, the companies behind Venu announced that they would not be launching the service after all.
Key Details
- A joint statement from the three companies says they have decided to “discontinue” Venu Sports.
- The streamer would have faced stiff competition from a new Fubo streamer, and new DIRECTV plans.
- Disney is still planning to launch a new ESPN streaming service by late summer 2025.
Venu was to be a live TV streamer that offered 14 sports-related channels such as ESPN, FS1, and TNT, along with broadcast networks like ABC and Fox. The three companies responsible for Venu collectively announced the streamer’s fate via press release on Friday. Despite spending millions of dollars each to bring Venu to life, it appears it will never see the light of day.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” they said. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”
Our biggest question in the wake of news that Fubo and Hulu + Live TV would merge would be what would happen to Venu. Questions around the joint venture only intensified when as part of that deal, Fubo announced that it would be allowed to create a smaller, sports-themed streaming services using Disney-owned channels like ABC, ESPN, and SEC Network.
DIRECTV has also received Disney's blessing to craft sports-themed channel packages with its networks, and the House of Mouse is still planning to launch a new ESPN streaming service dubbed Flagship before the beginning of the 2025 NFL and college football seasons. In such a marketplace, it was beginning to look as if Venu — which seemed like a highly innovative, perhaps market-changing product when it was first announced last February — would be just another competitor in the end.
There were likely myriad factors that led to Venu’s ultimate mothballing. For one, more legal action against the service wasn’t out of the question. Fubo’s antitrust suit was to be dismissed after the merger announcement with Hulu + Live TV, but this week DIRECTV joined with DISH’s parent company EchoStar in sending letters to the judge on that case, reiterating their belief that Venu still represented a violation of antitrust laws.
Had Venu launched, it would have had fewer sports programming options available than it had originally planned. WBD lost out on its current package of regular season and playoff NBA games over the summer, and saw those games split between Amazon’s Prime Video and NBC. The company sued to try to recoup some of those games, but ultimately settled with the league, and will not carry any live NBA contests in the United States on TNT starting next season.
Those factors along with others no doubt contributed to the decision to end Venu Sports once and for all. Now, Fox and WBD must decide if they too will lend their sports channels to smaller packages from distributors like DIRECTV and Fubo, since they will no longer be marketing a similar product directly to consumers. The saga of Venu was a tortured one, but now the service is being laid to rest for good.
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.