Disney, Fox & Warner Bros. Discovery Decide to End Venu

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

Venu, the wannabe sports streaming service, is no more.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, the three companies who owned the joint venture, announced this morning in a press release that Venu will be discontinued, effective immediately, and before the service ever actually launched.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service. In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period,” the companies said in a statement.

The three industry giants said last year that it would launch Venu in the fall of 2024. The service would include sports programming and live feeds from all three companies including ESPN, Fox Sports and TBS and TNT.

However, the venture was stalled in August when live streamer Fubo obtained a temporary injunction against Venu, saying it violated anti-trust laws. That obstacle seemed to be lifted this week when Disney agreed to merge Hulu Live with Fubo in return for the latter agreeing to drop its lawsuit.

However, DIRECTV and Dish filed letters with the presiding judge in the Venu lawsuit which asked her to keep the injunction in place. The two satcasters hinted it might file their own lawsuit if the Fubo injunction was removed.

There is no indication that the decision to end Venu will have any additional bearing on the Hulu Live-Fubo deal announced this week.

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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.