Venu Sports Execs Fail to Satisfy Congress’ Concerns, More Questions Looming as Launch Approaches
Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery reps met with several congressmen Friday, but it appears they haven’t quashed fears about Venu Sports.
Is Venu Sports going to make it to consumers this fall? Despite announcing that Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery would launch a joint venture sports streaming service in time for the next football, basketball, and hockey seasons, there are now a growing number of questions as to whether the United States government or a litigious competitor will quash the platform before it reaches the market. Back in April, Congressmen Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) sent a letter to the three companies which included a list of yet-unanswered questions about the project. Now, according to a report from The Wrap, representatives from Disney, Fox, and WBD went to Washington on Friday to answer those questions, but they left Congress with more worries than answers.
Key Details:
- Congressmen still have concerns over how Venu Sports could affect the pay-TV market.
- The Department of Justice has reportedly promised to look over Venu Sports for antitrust violations.
- Disney, Fox, and WBD likely could have avoided this mess by allowing cable companies to sell smaller channel packages.
Publically shared details have been so sparse on the JV streamer that Congressmen Castro and Nadler felt the need to call out the three companies involved in its creation. Venu only revealed its name for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and there is still no official word on how much it will cost.
“The Joint Venture raises questions about how this new offering would affect access, competition, and choice in the sports streaming market,” the April letter to Disney, Fox, and WBD read. “Without more complete information about the pricing, intent, and organization of this new venture, we are concerned that this consolidation will result in higher prices for consumers and less fair licensing terms for upstream sports leagues and downstream video distributors.”
It appears that the three companies still have some work to do to provide that information. The Department of Justice has reportedly been planning to look into Venu for potential antitrust violations, and the live TV streaming service Fubo is suing Disney, Fox, and WBD to try and keep the product off the market. There are quite a few hurdles for Venu to clear before it can reach the hands of consumers, and the companies building it have to do a better job of assuaging government scrutiny the next time they meet with members of Congress.
The Streamable’s Take
In my view, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery could likely have avoided this mess by allowing channel distributors like Fubo, DIRECTV, DISH, and Comcast to sell smaller channel packages themselves. Disney in particular has to bear the brunt of responsibility in this regard, as its tactics in forcing cable companies to pay huge premiums for ESPN and put it in their lowest-priced channel packages has gained it a reputation as an inflexible negotiator.
On the other hand, the campaign to stop Venu Sports by competitors has often felt like sour grapes from the word “go.” Fubo CEO David Gandler will rant about how unfair Venu is to anyone who will listen, and while his protestations against some of the carriage requirements imposed by the defendants in his company’s suit make perfect sense, we know that antitrust laws are designed to protect competition, not competitors.
Channel owners are under no obligation to help cable and satellite companies survive, and if they can make their product more efficient and easy to access by offering popular TV networks directly to consumers, it is likely that they will figure out how to do it one way or the other.
Subscription streamers like Netflix and Prime Video are adding more sports rights all the time, meaning that pay-TV’s days as an aggregation platform that customers will be willing to pay a premium for because it carries all — or nearly all — of the sports content that they want to watch are numbered no matter what.
As for Congress and the DOJ, I have no idea if the structure of Venu Sports — or the unwillingness of the companies involved to allow cable companies to offer similar products — violates any laws. It is likely that government officials are still trying to figure that out, but the platform has always seemed very pro-consumer in my eyes. It brings viewers as close to a true, a la carte sports channel service as they’ve ever been, and it could create more competition if media companies see it as a success and want to try selling their own slimmed-down bundles in the future.
I too have lots of questions about Venu Sports, and if any Disney, Fox, or WBD representatives want to provide me the same access that they did Representatives Nadler and Castro, I am available for a sit-down. In lieu of that, the public will just have to wait to see if Disney, Fox, and WBD can provide government officials with satisfactory information that Venu won’t burn down the cable industry as they know it.
Venu Sports
Venu Sports is the planned live TV streaming service offering sports from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Programming from ESPN+ and on-demand content will also be available. Users will be able to watch NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA games. Subscribers can bundle the product with Disney+, Hulu, or Max. Venu’s launch is on hold thanks to a preliminary injunction.