Venu Sports, the upcoming streaming platform created from a partnership between Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, may not see the light of day after all. Originally slated for release this fall, Venu Sports would offer viewers access to the catalogs of the three media giants (which includes networks like ESPN and Fox Sports) for a single monthly fee. Earlier this year, streaming platform Fubo filed an antitrust complaint, alleging that Venu Sports would undermine smaller services, with Fubo CEO David Gandler stating, “Simply put, this sports cartel blocked our playbook for many years and now they are effectively stealing it for themselves.”
Disney+, Hulu, Max streaming bundle launches in ad-supported and ad-free tiers
Now, a New York court has sided with Fubo by blocking the streaming bundle, arguing it creates a monopoly in the sports streaming world.
“Put simply, the antitrust problem presented by the JV is as follows: if the JV is allowed to launch, it will be the only option on the market for those television consumers who want to spend their money on multiple live sports channels they love to watch, but not on superfluous entertainment channels they do not,” wrote Southern District of New York Judge Margaret Garnett. “And the JV’s corporate owners—the JV Defendants—are the same players that (1) used their longstanding bundling practices to create the void in the pay TV market tailor-made for the live-sports-only JV to fill, and also (2) exercise near-monopolistic control over the ability for a different live-sports-only streaming service to exist and compete with the JV.”
