Venu Sports is officially a no go.
Disney, Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery abruptly announced Friday morning that Venu Sports will not go forward. “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the three parties said in a statement.
The announcement was an about face for a service that appeared to have been resurrected this week after the apparent resolution of the legal case blocking its launch. Just four days ago, Fubo agreed to drop its antitrust suit against Venu’s backers as part of a broader merger deal with Disney, paving the way for the removal of the injunction blocking Venu from its planned launch last August.
On Thursday, Dish and DIRECTV sent letters to the judge overseeing the case asking that the injunction not be lifted, arguing that Disney had sought to in essence buy off Fubo.
It should be noted that the judge granted Fubo its injunction on the grounds that it was likely to succeed at trial. Fubo’s argument was that Venu’s main calling cards — its sport-specific content and lower price — were only possible because its backers require other streamers to carry lower-rated non-sports networks in order to license sports networks like ESPN. That same argument could easily have been made by any other MVPD, streaming or otherwise, meaning that future legal challenges were not out of the question.
When it was first announced less than a year ago, Venu carried the potential to upend the industry by providing a relatively low-cost, sport-specific option at a time when streaming MVPDs are increasingly bloated with low-wattage channels and resulting higher prices. Yet as those conditions are largely the result of content providers’ terms, it is no surprise the service generated immediate pushback from carriers.
“In an ever-changing marketplace,” Venu’s backers said Friday, “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.”
