FuboTV Lawsuit Ruling Halts Launch of Venu Sports

Earlier this year, a trio of media companies announced an ambitious joint venture for cord-cutting sports fans: Venu Sports, which was set to launch later this year and bundle together sports offerings from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros in one streaming service. For some observers, this was a potential Holy Grail of live sports broadcasts; for others, it was an antitrust lawsuit waiting to happen.

Now, The Hollywood Reporter reported that those concerns have led a U.S. District Court judge to block the launch of Venu on antitrust grounds. The plaintiff in the case is FuboTV, which offers a similar bundle of programming across streaming services and argued that the launch of Venu represented an existential risk to its business.

“When it comes to live sports programming, the [joint venture] Defendants dominate,” U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett wrote in her opinion. “Together, they own over 60% of the telecast rights to nationally broadcast live sports, and an even larger share of the most-watched sports like football and basketball and the most-watched events like playoff or championship games.”

Judge Garnett also contended that, should Venu launch as planned, “a swift exodus of large numbers of Fubo’s subscribers (both current and reasonably anticipated near-term future subscribers) is likely and Fubo’s bankruptcy and delisting of the company’s stock will likely soon follow.”

As The Hollywood Reporter‘s Winston Cho wrote, ESPN has already announced plans to appeal the verdict. In a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter, ESPN called Venu “a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice.”

ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Team for Game-Changing Sports Streaming Service

Called Venu Sports, the new service is slated to launch this fall

How this appeal will play out is anyone’s guess. That said, another factor that could complicate matters is — as Cho points out — the NBA’s recent media rights sale, which didn’t include Warner Bros. Discovery. And while sports championships will continue to be determined in stadiums and arenas, the matter of how we’ll all watch those games is likely to be decided in courtrooms and boardrooms in the very near future.