Venu Sports, the joint sports streamer between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, was given a huge win earlier this week when their biggest obstacle to launch was finally cleared.
A settlement was reached in the ongoing Fubo lawsuit against Venu when Fubo was acquired by Disney. This brought to an end the months long legal tussle over Venu Sports as a federal judge had blocked the joint streaming venture from launching last year.
With the runway now cleared, there were reports that Venu Sports could launch in time for the Super Bowl. But now that will not be the case.
In fact, it won’t launch at all.
On Friday morning, all three companies issued a joint statement announcing that they were shutting down Venu Sports effective immediately.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service. 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.”
It’s a shocking decision from Fox, ESPN, and WBD given how much time and energy they put into the launch of Venu Sports.
Venu was given its own executive team, had a pricepoint figured out, and sought to be a game-changing destination to reach new fans in an era of streaming and cord cutting. Throughout the dispute with Fubo, the Venu Sports conglomerate all spoke highly of how important the venture was and how it was going to be the future of the sports industry.
What happened suddenly to cause ESPN, Fox, and WBD to change course will be the subject of immense speculation. Did the letters from DirecTV and Dish warning of potential further legal action spook them into not wanting to fight another lawsuit? Did they not want the potential scrutiny of Washington with congress and the DOJ perhaps intervening? Did they not want to open Pandora’s Box any further on potential legal rulings about bundling? Or did the media giants involved simply come to the conclusion that it was no longer a venture that was worthwhile?
While any or all of those could be possible, it’s safe to say that absolutely nobody saw this decision coming after the events of this week were favorable for an imminent launch of Venu Sports. Although ESPN and WBD both have their own streaming outlets to retreat back to in Max and ESPN’s upcoming Flagship service, Fox Sports is now left once again without any real streaming platform to call their own.
And now each company will now go their separate ways as we are left to wonder what is next in the streaming revolution.
About Matt Yoder