With the NFL season looming, Fubo’s Hail Mary just connected with a judge. Venu Sports will not be allowed to launch as planned, at least for now.
The joint streaming venture is supposed to pull together the sports-focused channels owned by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox. But Fubo successfully argued that this package was priced in a way that gave it an unfair advantage. Fubo carries some of those channels, but has to pay more than the price Venu was asking.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett granted Fubo’s preliminary injunction, which now prevents Venu’s debut as planned.
Venu planned to offer access to 14 linear sports networks, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+.
Related: Everything We Know About Venu Sports: Price, Availability, More ►
Judge Garnett’s ruling says Venu’s backers are “the same players that used their longstanding bundling practices to create the void in the pay TV market tailor-made for the live-sports-only JV (joint venture) to fill, and also exercise near-monopolistic control over the ability for a different live-sports-only streaming service to exist and compete with the JV.”
Garnett Judge Garnett said that once Venu launches, Fubo would face “a swift exodus” of subscribers, predicting “that Fubo’s bankruptcy and delisting of the company’s stock will likely soon follow. These are quintessential harms that money cannot adequately repair.”
The judge wrote that Fubo is likely to be successful in proving its claims of collusion. Fubo’s stock is up 18% on the news.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and are appealing it,” Venu’s backers said in a joint statement.
Fubo’s CEO, David Gandler, shared this reaction: “Today’s ruling is a monumental victory for Fubo, the media industry, and the American consumer! We’re fully committed to delivering the best sports streaming experience, free from unfair competition by media giants. And trust us—we’re just getting started!”
And then he took a victory lap on social media:
Today we saved the industry. https://t.co/ElM1YxQUmU
— david gandler (@davidgandler) August 16, 2024
The parent company of DIRECTV STREAM also cheered the Venu injunction: “We are pleased with the court decision and believe that it appropriately recognizes the potential harms of allowing major programmers to license their content to an affiliated distributor on more favorable terms than they license their content to third parties.”
What Happens Now?
Venu Sports cannot launch until it finds a way around the ruling. This makes it near-certain we won’t have access to Venu in 2024.
The defendants will likely appeal the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. But that doesn’t preclude the possibility of a trial.
Fubo successfully argued that it doesn’t have the ability to offer a skinnier bundle of sports-only channels. Fubo’s leaders probably don’t want to have to offer channels like Disney Junior or Freeform, but it’s forced to carry those if it wants the Disney crown jewels of ABC and ESPN.
If Venu’s backers were desperate enough, they could offer the ability to split those packages at more advantageous prices. Or it could raise the price of Venu so high that it becomes unattractive. Either way, Venu can’t move forward unless Fubo drops the case or a higher court comes to the rescue.
This story is developing. Refresh for more details.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 19 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $94.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”