A U.S. judge temporarily blocked media companies Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox from launching their sports streaming service, Venu, according to court filings.<\/p>\n
The temporary injunction, granted in response to a lawsuit brought by Fubo TV, comes just weeks ahead of the start of the NFL season. The companies had planned to launch their service by that date.<\/p>\n
Fubo, an internet TV bundle akin to the traditional pay TV package, alleged in its lawsuit that Venu was anticompetitive and would upend its business. Fubo\u2019s stock gained 16% Friday on the news of the injunction.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s ruling is a victory not only for Fubo but also for consumers. This decision will help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options,\u201d said Fubo CEO David Gandler in a press release after the court decision.<\/p>\n
Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox and Disney\u2019s ESPN announced the formation of the joint venture streaming service in February. Soon after Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against the venture.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Fubo said it intends to move forward with its antitrust lawsuit against the companies for their anticompetitive practices. In recent months, lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Tex., sent a letter pushing to scrutinize Venu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respectfully disagree with the court\u2019s ruling and are appealing it,\u201d Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox and Disney\u2019s ESPN said in a joint statement on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that Fubo\u2019s arguments are wrong on the facts and the law, and that Fubo has failed to prove it is legally entitled to a preliminary injunction. Venu Sports is a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice by reaching a segment of viewers who currently are not served by existing subscription options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Venu announced pricing of $42.99 per month.<\/p>\n
The service would offer the complete suite of live sports rights owned by the parent companies, which includes the NBA, NHL, MLB, college football and basketball, among others. Venu subscribers would also have access to 14 traditional TV sports networks of its parent companies, including ESPN, ABC, Fox, TNT and TBS, as well as the streaming service ESPN+.<\/p>\n
The expensive price point is common when it comes to streaming live sports so it doesn\u2019t shake up any carriage agreements with traditional pay TV distributors.<\/p>\n
In court documents, U.S. Judge Margaret Garrett noted that the three companies control about 54% of all U.S. sports rights, and at least 60% of all nationally broadcast U.S. sports rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is significant evidence in the record that the true figures may be even larger,\u201d Garrett said in court papers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that alone, Disney, Fox, and [Warner Bros. Discovery] are each significant players in live sports licensing, who otherwise compete against each other both to secure sports telecast rights and to attract viewers to their live sports programming. But together, they are dominant,\u201d Garrett said her decision.<\/p>\n
Outside of these companies, Paramount Global\u2019s CBS and Comcast\u2019s NBC are the other largest holders of U.S. sports rights. Streaming services, such as Amazon\u2019s Prime Video, have also begun offering live sports exclusively.<\/p>\n
The marketing around Venu so far had been that it would target sports fans outside of the traditional pay TV bundle.<\/p>\n
But Fubo\u2019s lawsuit alleged that the sports streaming service violates antitrust law, and is the latest example of anticompetitive behavior from the three media companies.<\/p>\n
A multi-day hearing took place in the last week, in which representatives for Fubo, as well as satellite TV bundle providers DirecTV and EchoStar\u2019s Dish \u2014 which also offer competing internet TV bundles and supported Fubo in the suit \u2014 argued the streaming bundle would be detrimental to their businesses.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, an attorney for Warner Bros. Discovery told the judge an injunction would \u201cterminate\u201d Venu, Front Office Sports reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ruling is a major victory for consumers and competition in the video marketplace,\u201d said Jeff Blum, EVP of government and external affairs at EchoStar, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased with the court decision and believe that it appropriately recognizes the potential harms of allowing major programmers to license their content to an affiliated distributor on more favorable terms than they license their content to third parties,\u201d DirecTV said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A U.S. judge temporarily blocked media companies Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox from launching their sports streaming service, Venu, according to court filings. The temporary injunction, granted in response to a lawsuit brought by Fubo TV, comes just weeks ahead of the start of the NFL season. The companies had planned to launch their service by that date. Fubo, an internet <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}