Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have pulled the plug on their collaborative sports streamer, Venu Sports — and with that, one of the biggest television stories of 2024 has come to an unceremonious end.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said in a Friday joint statement. “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.”
The update came after Fubo officially settled its antitrust litigation against the trio on Monday when Disney announced plans to combine the streamer with Hulu + Live TV. Disney will have a 70% stake in the combined company, Fubo’s current management team will remain in place and both services will continue to exist as separate entities.
The merger will also result in a new sports and broadcasting service, potentially explaining the discontinuation of Venu.
A lot of ink has been spilled over this particular streamer that never made it to launch.
Venu was first announced in February of 2024 with a planned release date for late summer/early fall. The idea was that the Disney-owned ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports and Fox Sports would combine their respective rights in one app that was equally owned between the three companies, giving sports fans the opportunity to watch almost any event in one place rather than forcing them to jump between platforms. It was supposed to be a sports offering targeted at ‘cord-nevers.’ But in practice, it’s been a headache defined by legal proceedings, competing products and general confusion from consumers, members of the media and analysts.
Shortly after the service was announced, FuboTV expressed concerns on how the service would impact “fair market competition” and filed an antitrust lawsuit with the U.S. District Court. Both DirecTV and Dish Network filed briefs supporting this suit. In August, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, blocking the streamer’s launch.
The media giants appealed the decision and were set to fight it out in the New York-based Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. However, that would not proceed after Disney and Fubo revealed that same day the two parties had entered into an agreement to merge the latter service with Hulu + Live TV. As part of that deal, the trio agreed to pay Fubo $220 million in cash to settle the litigation against Venu Sports.
On Thursday, DirecTV and Dish Network parent EchoStar told the judge in the Fubo case that they were evaluating their options with respect to Venu and the settlement, the anticompetitive harms posed by the joint venture and Disney, Fox and WBD’s “tying practices.”
“DIRECTV remains a leader in sports, and we look forward to working with our programming partners – including Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery – to compete on a level playing field to deliver sports fans more choice, control, and value all-in-one experience,” a DirecTV spokesperson told TheWrap following the decision to unwind Venu.
While Venu is dead, Disney is still planning to launch its own fully direct to consumer version of ESPN in fall 2025. The sports network’s programming is also available through ESPN+, which is available as a standalone platform, a tile in Disney+ and bundled with Disney+ and Hulu.
If approved by shareholders and regulators, the combination of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo is expected to create an entity with a total of 6.2 million subscribers in North America and over $6 billion in revenue – making it the second largest virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) behind YouTube TV and sixth largest pay TV operator.
Disney shares fell 1.45% on Friday following the decision to unwind Venu, while Fox shares fell 2% and WBD stock fell 5%. Shares of Fubo popped 3%.
