Venu may not ever launch. It’s rare for a new business venture to be facing a lawsuit and a push for a congressional investigation before it actually begins operations and have the justice department on its tail.
The Justice Department is going to be reviewing the plans for the joint venture to make sure it does not lead to unfair pricing, Fubo, which is a streaming service that markets itself around sports is suing the JV, and most recently Variety reported that Fubo, DirecTV, Dish Network, Newsmax and others sent a letter to members of Congress calling for hearings on the state of competition in the pay-TV market.
But all of the regulatory fights and lawsuits and hearings may not be able to bring it down. What could? Comcast getting the rights to the NBA. The Streaming Advisor recently featured a story explaining the strong chance that the block of NBA games airing on TNT, which would be a major reason for Warner Brothers Discovery to be involved in the first place, may already be on its way to NBC and Peacock. If the games are not available that would cut into its reach while still including ESPN’s NBA coverage. If nothing else if WBD were to pull out as a partner the JV could lose some negotiating clout.
The NFL is said to be unhappy with the way the service has been pieced together without talking with it ahead of time. The league is also reportedly pushing its Sunday Ticket partner YouTube TV over the JV. Brian Rolapp, chief media/business officer of the NFL said that the service would leave out more than half of NFL Football. That is in reference to the fact that Venu does not include NBC, Peacock, Amazon or CBS which all have rights to broadcast and or stream NFL games. And of course, super dedicated NFL fans can get a discount on Sunday Ticket by being YouTube TV subscribers. For the NFL alone YouTube TV looks more complete and it doesn’t even factor in other sports. For that matter so does Hulu with Live TV, which includes ESPN+.
So at best the service won’t offer a full NFL Slate. If the NBA then takes its talents to Comcast this would mean about half of the NBA slate would be out as well. Including a ton of playoff games. NBA TV is not part of the JV either BTW. Also not included as part of the JV are any college football game that would be played on Peacock, NBC, and CBS. NBC and CBS are the main outlets of Big Ten Football while NBC has a major deal for Notre Dame Football. Oh yeah, and there is also College basketball, which again does have a large presence on ESPN and Fox Sports but will again be missing multiple important matchups throughout the season.
So how much does a big-time sports fan want to sign up for a service that doesn’t include tons of big-time sports? Do you see the problem now? The service is a half measure at best. It is not the full rebuilding of all sports content that marketing geniuses would have you believe it is.
There will be lots of action on Venu if fans are happy with whatever is on. If they are the types of general fans that are thrilled as long as they can gamble, drink beer and yell at the screen, Venu might be a good deal, once they actually announce what it will cost. But if you want to get a little more specific things will get tricky fast. And sports fans have gotten a lot more specific over the years. Want the Notre Dame Clemson game? Opps, it’s on NBC this week. Want the Chiefs? Ooops that’s CBS this week. So good luck with your venture. If Congress, the Justice Department and a good old-fashioned lawsuit don’t take it down, fan apathy could snuff it out in its bed.
