Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Call it Quits on Venu Sports

Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Call it Quits on Venu Sports
Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Call it Quits on Venu Sports Credit | REUTERS

United States: Venu Sports, the highly anticipated joint streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corp., and Disney, has been discontinued before it even launched. In a stunning announcement Friday morning, the three media giants revealed they had decided to scrap the service, effective immediately.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies stated in a joint press release. Their decision is actually rooted in the evolving demands of sports fans and the suddenly changing  of market. Instead of actually launching a new platform, they’ll also focus on enhancing existing products and distribution channels.

The move to pull out Venu is made four days after Disney announces that Hulu + Live TV service will integrate with Fubo, putting an end to a lawsuit that for months has stalled the already contentious sports streaming venture.

As reported by the CNN, although Disney cleared the path with acquiring Fubo, which enabled Venu’s launch, new reports on Thursday suggested that satellite TV providers DirecTV and Dish have asked a judge to re-evaluate Fubo’s case and dismiss it, which would put further delay to the platform’s launch. Fubo could not be reached for an interview for this story.

Old media conglomerates along with telecoms have spent years trying to move away from the bundle, millions of consumers ditch each year hence the conventional cable as Netflix boomed.

CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros Discovery or WBD, Fox and Disney first announced plans to create Venu Sports in February this year and indicated at the time that the super- streamer would commence in fall 2024.

The companies first sold the platform as a one-stop shop for sports fans to access a vast range of content in a fragmented media landscape that has gradually sliced up the rights to sports franchises across a variety of cable and streaming services.

Venu Sports would have offered the three athletes the convenience of having their respective sport’s content— NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, FIFA World Cup games, NASCAR races, UFC Matches, and PGA TOUR golf tournaments all under one platform.

In August, Fubo sued to block the platform’s launch, claiming at the time that WBD, Fox, and Disney are using sports media rights to sneak past the competition in one anticompetitive package.

Disney, Fox and WBD released a statement Monday that the intend to contribute USD220 million to Fubo in order to settle the lawsuit, and they also signed a deal according to which Disney would lend Fubo USD 145 million in 2026.