- Venu, the sports-focused streaming site announced by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery last February will not launch. The news follows a judge’s ruling last year that raised anti-competitive concerns and comes days after Disney agreed to take a majority ownership stake in rival Fubo.
The sports-focused super streaming service announced last February by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery has been scuttled.
The three companies have cancelled their plans to launch the service, which was called Venu, citing evolving market conditions.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said in a statement on Friday. “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.”
Venu was supposed to be up and running before the start of the 2024-2025 NFL season, but legal challenges from rival streamer Fubo and other hurdles prevented that.
Earlier this week, those hurdles seemed cleared when Disney announced plans to merge with Fubo and take a majority ownership stake in the streaming service. All litigation over Venu was settled as part of that deal.
But satellite companies DirecTV and Dish still opposed the deal and argued to the court that the anticompetitive concerns had not changed. Disney, Fox and WBD decided an extended court fight wasn’t worth the trouble and decided, instead, to focus on their own initiatives.
A final ruling against Venu could also have had ramifications on streaming bundles, which broadcasters have turned to recently in an effort to cut back on churn.