Disney and Warner Bros.’ big sports venture is dead before it even began

Warner. Bros., Fox, and ESPN are benching Venu permanently. The combined, sports-based megaplayer was initially announced early last year, but got injured in an antitrust suit from live TV provider and competitor Fubo before it ever got the chance to play. It seemed for a minute like the field had been cleared for its return earlier this week, when Fubo and Hulu + Live TV (which, like ESPN, is owned by Disney) announced that they would be merging their services, ending the dispute between the two companies. But alas, Venu has been officially cut from the team. 

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the companies said in a joint statement, via Deadline. “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.”

It sounds like there was some drama behind the scenes. While Deadline reports that the three partners ultimately agreed on the surprising decision, they were apparently “not all equally energetic in pushing that outcome with Disney the movant.” Maybe the Fubo bundle was a better deal. The trade also specifies that other players weren’t too happy about the dismissal of Fubo’s suit against the venture, and could have picked up the legal fight in its wake. Yesterday, DirecTV and Dish reportedly both challenged the dismissal decision in a letter to the judge on the case, writing that the Disney/Fubo merger doesn’t resolve any of the original antitrust concerns against Venu. All in all, there’s less risk to all three companies in just killing the thing off.

Sorry to anyone looking forward to all of those combined sports channels, but the streaming landscape keeps contracting anyway, so there will likely be a similar version of this under a new name soon. (You can watch at least one day of football a year on Netflix, due to its new NFL partnership.) In the meantime, rest in peace to Venu; we hardly knew ye.