Sports Streamer Venu to Cost $42.99 a Month – Does That Work For You?

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow me on X.

Fox, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery this fall are planning to launch a bundled sports streaming service and now the joint venture has a name and a price: Venu for $42.99 a month. The three companies today revealed the price in a new press release.

The joint venture today said Venu, which will come with a free seven-day trial, will provide access to 14 live sports channels such as ESPN, TNT, TBS, and a library of on-demand content from their combined suite of sports networks and ESPN+.

“With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the U.S. with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events,” said Pete Distad, CEO of Venu Sports. “We’re building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages.”

Venu did not provide an exact date for the launch but it remains to be seen if sports fans will shell out $42.99 a month for a three-company streamer, albeit one with the following networks and services: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+. In May, I wrote the following on what the likely price would be and why:

“I expect the Venu launch price will be around $39.99 a month, which will be significantly high to distinguish itself from an ESPN standalone service and significantly low to distinguish itself from live streaming services such as YouTube TV which start at around $70 a month. I could also see the companies launching with $39.99 a month as a debut discount and raising it to $44.99 a month after six months or so.”

ESPN is still planning to launch a standalone service separately from the three-channel service, perhaps as early as next year. Last fall, I estimated that ESPN would offer the standalone ESPN for something like $25-30 a month in 2025, which would be competitive with other national streaming services such as NBA League Pass and MLB TV. Disney, which owns ESPN, might even want to go higher than that to create the perception that ESPN is something special, but I wrote it’s likely to stay in the $25-30 range at launch to give the service an early boost.

The $42.99 a month Venu price may seem high, but Warner, Fox and Disney want to protect their other properties/partners such as the ESPN standalone and pay TV operators, including live streamers, cable and satellite. If they set the price any lower, more fans might cut the cord to sign up for the three-company streamer which would reduce the companies’ pay TV carriage fees. Or they might not subscribe to the ESPN standalone because the three-headed streamer would be so close in price.

Venu today said anyone signing up for the launch price will be able to receive the service for that same price for 12-months from time of sign-up, with the ability to cancel at any time.

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The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.