Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox Finally Realized Venu Was a Terrible Idea

Venu Sports, the planned sports-centric streaming service from ESPN (Disney), Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery will be “discontinued,” the companies said in a joint statement on Friday morning. It was a “collective decision,” media members were informed, and is “effective immediately.”

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the three-company statement reads. “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.”

Sorry about that whole thing, Venu staff.

It almost seemed like Venu had a bit of new life when Disney literally bought the trio’s way out of a Fubo lawsuit, one that had at least temporarily stopped Venu from launching. It wasn’t the only roadblock: Venu had felt D.O.A. to many of us the moment that WBD lost the NBA to Amazon Prime Video. Save a few weeks of March Madness and some MLB Playoffs (which are not nothing), the NBA was about all WBD was bringing to the table. Disney and Fox both have the NFL, which is the biggest game in town. Tipping the imbalance even further, Disney’s ESPN already has ESPN+ and plans to launch another standalone ESPN streaming platform in the near future.

Other companies, most notably Echostar and DirecTV, also implored the courts to stop Venu. The fellow video providers said they found Venu’s actions to be “anticompetitive” in letters provided to the same judge who initially granted Fubo’s injunction.

With its purchase of Fubo, Disney plans to merge its Hulu + Live TV vMVPD service with Fubo, which leans into sports. The deal will allow Fubo to launch a Sports & Broadcast plan that will include Disney’s ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, and ESPNEWS channels, as well as ESPN+. Disney will own 70 percent of the combined Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, which will be called Fubo and be run by the current Fubo management team. Disney gets to select the board of directors.

In Addition, Disney, WBD, and Fox jointly paid Fubo $220 million to settle its anti-competition lawsuit. Clearly, more were on the way.