When Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Fox unveiled the concept for Venu Sports back in February, the sports streaming joint venture was notably missing two other media giants who weren’t invited to participate: Paramount Global and NBCUniversal.
“We weren’t hurt by not being invited. I think it’s because we’re really focused on a multi-genre offering,” Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks said when asked about the service during the IMG x RedBird Summit on Thursday. “When we look at the stats of Paramount+, we look at subscribers who came in for sports, 90% of their time is spent on the services with non-sports content. So, I think a more robust offering that has sports and has news, it has entertainment, is a better offering for the consumer.”
NBC Sports Acquisitions and Partnerships president Jon Miller argued that it doesn’t make sense invest in a product that “loses basically 45% of the NFL, has none of the golf major championships, loses half of motorsports in NASCAR, loses March Madness every other year and will lose half of the NBA opportunity because Amazon and NBC have two NBA packages.”
“To me, it would be fool’s gold to invest in something like this when you can get all of that stuff by going through your cable subscription or buying a YouTube TV subscription,” Miller said. “So, we weren’t invited. We’re very happy with the hand that we have right now. We’re continually looking to grow, make partnerships and be in business with people who see the value in what we bring to the table.”
Venu Sports, which was previously slated to launch this fall for $42.99 per month, has been temporarily blocked after Fubo was granted a preliminary injunction in its antitrust lawsuit against the offering filed back in February.
At the time, Fubo argued that the JV was the latest example of a years-long campaign of anticompetitive practices by the studios to block its business. The complaint also slammed the trio for forcing Fubo to carry dozens of expensive non-sports channels that its customers don’t want as a condition of licensing sports content.
In her ruling in August, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett determined Fubo is “likely to succeed in demonstrating that the JV will substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in contravention of this country’s antitrust laws.”
“If the JV launches, witness testimony and documentary evidence firmly establish that a swift exodus of large numbers of Fubo’s subscribers (both current and reasonably anticipated near-term future subscribers) is likely, and that Fubo’s bankruptcy and delisting of the company’s stock will likely soon follow,” Garnett wrote in her decision. “These are quintessential harms that money cannot adequately repair.”
Fox, WBD and Disney have appealed the decision, with a trial set for fall 2025.
Cheeks and Miller argued that the value proposition for consumers is in the combination of broadcast linear and streaming.
“If you just take last season, CBS’ [coverage of the] NFL regular season was up 5%. It was the highest rated regular season since ’98 when CBS reacquired the NFL, and it was up more than 50% on Paramount+. So again, we’re meeting the audiences where they want to be and we’re not cannibalizing. We’re actually growing audience even when linear is declining. So I think the selling point to all the leagues is self-explanatory by virtue of these stats,” Cheeks explained.
Miller argued there are only three companies who successfully strike the balance between broadcast, cable and streaming: NBCUniversal, Paramount and Disney.
“The other competitors who are out there, who all do a great job, don’t have those three different opportunities to bring everything together, and I think that’s what leverages our ability to maximize the benefits to our partners,” Miller said.
