Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday abandoned plans to launch Venu Sports, their live sports joint venture, pulling the plug on a much-heralded effort that ran into substantial legal opposition.
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros pull plug on Venu sports streamer before launch Media giants had hoped to attract younger viewers who don’t subscribe to cable with NBA, NFL and Fifa offerings.
The media giants created the streaming venture to try to attract younger viewers who don’t subscribe to cable TV, with the idea being to bundle their massive portfolio of sports rights including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the Fifa World Cup.
The abrupt move comes just days after Disney appeared to have removed one legal obstacle to the deal, agreeing to merge smaller streamer FuboTV - a rival that had sued the media giants over what it said was anti-competitive behavior - with its Hulu Live service.
“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said on Friday.
