Fubo TV successfully was successful in its request for a preliminary injunction against the proposed sorts streaming service Venu after being approved by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York last Friday.
The injunction puts Venu’s launch date into question and comes as football season is about to kick off. The issue could get further complicated if Fubo’s antitrust lawsuit against the companies behind a Venu moves forward.
When seen through the prism of the already inevitable loss of TNT’s NBA basketball content at the conclusion of 2024 things honestly do not look good for Venu going forward. If it can not move on from the temporary injunction and avoid the anti-trust lawsuit it may just run out of time to make an impact before Disney follows up on its announced plans to launch ESPN as a stand alone service.
When we say ESPN as a standalone service, that is not a reference to ESPN+, an already existing Internet based streaming option that provides access to sports programming that is otherwise not available on the ESPN family of linear TV networks. We are talking a paid service that provides the full breadth of ESPN programming from across all of its traditional TV networks without the need to sign up for any other streaming service to get it.
ESPN has long had an app that puts its assets together for anybody that has access to the channels via a user name and password. The ESPN app also includes the aformentioned ESPN+. The app is already well organized and ready to go as a stand alone, there are just other details the company has to work out behind the scenes including the actual price of it. According to The Atlantic, the streamer would cost between 25-30 dollars.
Once that service is in the market, the appeal of Venu will probably be limited. Sure, Venu will offer more channels and sports, for instance access to NFL games on Fox and ABC, a few Colege Football Playoff games and until it looses it, NBA basketball on TNT along with FS1 and FS2. But the bulk of major sports action week in and week out takes place on ESPN’s networks. This includes NFL Monday Night Football, college football, hundreds of NBA games, WNBA games, hundreds of MLB games and tons of other sports if people are so inclined. While Venus looks like a monster for all of the content it could deliver, a lot of it is really ESPN.
Will delays cause the joint venture to split up?
If Venu can’t get off the ground before it’s time for ESPN to launch out on its own should we even expect Venu to launch? Does Disney see it as an advantage to offer ESPN through two different services outside of cable bundles and the numerous cable replacement services? Would Disney be wiser to just offer ESPN as part of a bundle with Hulu and Disney Plus? All of those questions should be considered going forward. Disney already had 2025 targeted as the release time for the service. With only 4 more months of 2024 left and no looming launch it looks like things could coincide.
It should be kept in mind that different corperations have different goals. And while all of them want to make money, the strategies for doing so can differ greatly. But on its own, ESPN is the most popular cable network and a key driver for most of the live TV streaming services that advertise themselves as a sports option. While Fubo has been the loudest advocate against Venu its not the only other streaming service with sports content. Hulu with live TV (also owned by Disney), YouTube TV, and Sling TV offer ESPN and the other channels built in to Venu. This means that Disney is in position to say if you want more than multiple ESPNs just add Hulu with live TV and then get access to Disney+ and Hulu’s on demand service on top of it all. Sure it’s more expensive, but there is a ton more content available that way too.
The key to the service is ESPN. Nobody would be clamoring for a service that offered TNT and FS1. And when start talking about TNT without the NBA it would be a non starter.
A sports fan with ESPN at their fingertips, an antenna, Peacock and Amazon Prime, which millions have regardless of TV options would ensure access to most sports content available. It would allow users to see every nationally televised NBA game, every televised NFL, the vast majority of college football and basketball action and lots of other sports in between.
This whole thing feels like it is going to end before it starts.
