Venu Sports is being discontinued, bringing an end to a short-lived and contentious streaming service. In confirming their plans to end the service, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery explained their goal now is to focus on their existing products and services.
Here’s the joint statement in full:
“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.”
After initially announcing plans to launch the service, Venu Sports was met by major criticism from the likes of Fubo, Disney, Dish, and others. These companies argued that Venu Sports was bad for their businesses, consumers, and the market as a whole.
The criticisms eventually led to a legal battle, resulting in a temporary injunction being awarded and stopping the service from launching. However, following an agreement of a deal between Disney and Fubo, Fubo dropped its legal complaint against the service.
With the legal hurdle seemingly removed, the expectation was that Venu Sports would launch as originally planned. That was until yesterday when DirecTV and EchoStar (Dish’s parent company) both reiterated their opposition to the service over antitrust complaints, suggestion that a fresh legal challenge might be presented in the future.
Whether directly a result of these latest criticisms and the potential threat of another lawsuit, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have opted to move on and close down the project before it even launched.
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