Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s joint sports streaming venture Venu Sports has finally set its long-awaited price tag.
The service, which is slated to launch this fall subject to regulatory approvals, will cost $42.99 per month. A seven-day free trial will also be available.
Anyone who signs up for Venu’s launch price will be able to receive the service for 12 months at that price from the time of sign up, with the ability to cancel at anytime.
Venu, which is targeted at sports fans outside of the traditional TV bundle and is available directly through a new app, will offer subscribers thousands of live sports from all the major sports leagues and top college conferences and access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+.
Content will include live game and event coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I football and basketball, U.S. and international soccer, combat sports, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, INDYCAR, NASCAR and F1 auto racing, and more. Specific programming includes the following:
Championship Golf: Year-round coverage of professional golf with select rounds from the Masters Tournament, extensive coverage of the PGA Championship and PGA TOUR LIVE, which brings golf fans more than 4,300 hours of live coverage from 35 tournaments a year.
College Sports: Thousands of games and events across multiple sports from the biggest college conferences, including SEC, ACC, the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12, with extensive coverage of NCAA Football, including the College Football Playoffs, along with NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball, including March Madness.
Combat Sports: A robust slate of boxing and MMA fight coverage throughout the year, including events from UFC, Top Rank Boxing, PFL, and Bellator.
Grand Slam Tennis: Complete coverage of all four of the annual Grand Slam tournaments, including the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
MLB: Comprehensive coverage with over 700 games throughout the regular season, along with postseason National League and American League Series coverage, in addition to full coverage of the World Series.*
Motorsports: Coverage throughout the season of the biggest auto racing events, including all NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and Championship Race, and all Formula 1 events.
NBA: Extensive coverage of the NBA with 165 regular season games, plus postseason coverage with playoff games, conference finals, and the NBA Finals, along with access to the biggest studio shows, including Inside the NBA from TNT Sports, along with ESPN’s NBA Today and NBA Countdown.*
NFL: Broad NFL coverage provided by ESPN/ABC and FOX, with over 120 regular season, Wild Card and Divisional round playoff games, the NFC Championship game,Super Bowl LIX in February 2025, and Super Bowl LXI in February 2027. Venu will also have ESPN’s “Monday Night Football with Peyton & Eli,” along with FOX NFL Kickoff and FOX NFL Sunday.
NHL: Extensive coverage of the NHL 2024-25 season with over 1,200 regular season games and all postseason playoff games, All-Star Game, and Stanley Cup Finals, with access to NHL studio programming, including NHL on TNT Face Off and ESPN’s NHL studio show, “The Point.”
U.S. and International Soccer: Home for extensive men’s and women’s soccer coverage with some of the biggest leagues and tournaments worldwide, including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Football Championship, FA Cup, CONMEBOL Copa América, and MLS Cup Championship, along with MLS and NWSL regular season and playoff game coverage, in addition to Bundesliga, Eredivisie, and LALIGA coverage.
WNBA: Regular season coverage of the WNBA and full postseason coverage with every playoff game.
UFL: Complete coverage of the United Football League, which just wrapped its inaugural season broadcast across FOX Sports and ESPN and Disney properties.
It will also include studio shows and pre and post-game programming such as ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” “First Take,” “Get Up!,” “College GameDay” and “The Pat McAfee Show,” FOX’s “NFL Sunday,” “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” “First Things First,” and TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” as well as a library of on-demand sports content, such as ESPN’s “30 for 30,” ESPN+ originals, ESPN Films, documentary programming from Fox Sports Films and more.
Subscribers will also have the ability to bundle Venu with Disney+, Hulu or Max.
“With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the U.S. with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events,” Venu Sports CEO Pete Distad said in a statement. “We’re building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages.”
The $42.99 per month price tag comes in well below competitors YouTube TV, which offers its cheapest package for $72.99 per month, and Fubo, which offers its cheapest package for $79.99 per month. However, those packages offer content beyond just sports.
The latter has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Venu Sports, alleging that the trio of studios have engaged in a years-long campaign of anticompetitive practices to block its business, with Venu Sports being the latest example.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will take up the matter during an preliminary injunction hearing starting on Aug. 6.
It also comes as Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Joaquin Castro have penned two separate letters to Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery seeking information on how Venu would impact access, competition and choice in the sports streaming market. The lawmakers asked that the trio copy the Department of Justice on their responses.
Fox, Disney and WBD will each own a 1/3 stake, have equal board representation and will license their sports content to the joint venture on a non-exclusive basis.
Rather than split revenue equally from the partnership, the companies are expected to earn a similar carriage fee rate as they do through other distribution channels where their networks are available. The trio’s members will each be responsible for selling their own advertising and will retain all of the advertising revenue from their content, the individual close to the venture previously told TheWrap.
In their initial letter to the lawmakers on April 29, Fox, Warner and Disney said they expect Venu to attract 1 million subscribers by the end of the calendar year and 5 million within five years of launching.
“Local ABC and FOX affiliates will also have the opportunity to be carried on this new service, generating an additional revenue stream for stations,” the letter said. “Our respective companies will remain separate and independent and will continue to negotiate separately and independently with each distributor, including this new platform, regarding the carriage terms for each respective network. Nothing in the JV changes how we each negotiate carriage of our programming with other distributors.”
Each company will continue to bid independently and compete with each other and others for the sports rights, the letter added.
“Our companies are aware of our legal obligations and are committed to structuring the new service in a manner that is pro-consumer and in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations. While the definitive agreements are not yet finalized, the parties do not currently anticipate an [Hartt-Scott-Rodino] filing will be required,” their letter concluded. “We look forward to sharing more information as it becomes available and appreciate your letter, which mirrors the goal of our new service: to provide consumers with more TV viewing choice.”
Nadler and Castro asked for responses to their latest follow-up questions no later June 21. A representative for Castro said he is “evaluating the news and any potential next steps,” while a representative for Nadler did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.