Greetings from Charlotte who is enjoying working on-site at SBJ HQ.
I spent the weekend in Chicago for my sister’s wedding and there was only one mention of sports in the bridesmaids’ speeches. It was a lot of fun, but I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see any WNBA games, including Caitlin Clark’s rookie assist record and Angel Reese’s 20 rebound double-double (Reese is the fastest player to record 20 double-doubles in a single WNBA season).
While the WNBA is back, football is back in full force, but anyone hoping for a chance to stream NFL and college games from Fox Sports, ESPN, and TNT with Venu Sports will have to wait, as FuboTV has managed to block the launch of the skinny bundle until at least 2025.
I’ll explain more about that later.
Fubo’s success in blocking the launch of Venu Sports until at least after 2025 was the biggest story of the weekend, but it’s more likely to affect Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery than ESPN or Disney.
The three companies that launched Venu have said they will appeal, and together they believe Fubo’s arguments are “erroneous on the facts and the law” and “respectfully disagree” with U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett’s ruling. WBD, ESPN and Fox also described their products as “pro-competitive options” targeted at customers who don’t subscribe to sports services.
But sources told SBJ that Disney sees Venu as just one piece of a larger puzzle in its sports strategy, with ESPN’s upcoming direct-to-consumer flagship product being the company’s top priority.
ESPN supports the appeals process, but sources said the network will consider its options as the case proceeds through the courts.
There are also no guarantees about how the industry will evolve in the future or what bundles and streaming services will emerge in the coming years.
For Fox, the situation is different. ESPN may be the driving force behind Venu, but the platform relies on Fox’s back-end technology (rather than developing new tech). Also, WBD recently lost NBA rights starting with the 2025-26 season (a decision that is being challenged in court). WBD has landed small to mid-sized deals, but Venu would have given the company a bit more leverage in the sports rights space.
How did we get here, and what’s next?
How did the court reach its conclusion? Fubo’s main complaint was that Venu could put vMVPDs out of business, and the court issued a preliminary injunction after determining that Venu would “substantially lessen competition and restrain trade.” The judge also wrote that Fubo was likely to prevail at trial.
Will the platform ever see the light of day? Probably not. Venu had hoped to launch the product before this college football and NFL season, but that appears to be on hold. And this was just one challenge from competitors.
Venu also drew attention with its subscription price of $42.99 per month, a steep price for sports fans and one that doesn’t include content from competitors like NBCUniversal, Apple TV+, Prime Video, Paramount/CBS, Netflix or the RSNs.
Will the networks be hit with lost ad revenue? Not really. As I reported earlier this month, Venu’s three partners have no plans to split ad revenue, and Venu, unlike other MVPDs and vMVPDs, has no plans to sell its own inventory (however limited it may be).
ESPN, Fox, WBD and Fubo all declined to comment beyond their official statements.
Most notable is the launch of ESPN’s flagship DTC product, scheduled to launch before the 2025 football season. With Bob Iger, Jimmy Pitaro and the rest of the company focused on that product, Venu may be a platform that fades into the annals of history before it even gets off the ground.
Venu Sports’ legal setback may force ESPN to consider its options
It’s the eye of the storm for sports media right now. We’ve come through the challenges of the Paris Olympics and soccer fever is just around the corner. But as we wait for the regular season to start (this weekend is Week 0), here are some other news stories that caught my attention.
Massive linear TV schedule for college volleyball: I’m looking at Nebraska vs. Louisville on September 22 on ABC and Texas vs. Kentucky on October 13 on ESPN. These are the most extensive matchups ESPN has ever covered on linear TV. The Big Ten Network will also have nearly 50 linear matches, the most in the history of the network (I’m looking at Stanford vs. Nebraska on September 18 on BTN and Wisconsin vs. Texas on September 1 on FOX). USL Super League debuts: The United States officially has two women’s professional soccer leagues. The USL Super League debuted on Saturday, with Carolina Ascents FC playing DC Power FC and Spokane Zephyrs FC playing Fort Lauderdale United FC. Peacock is the league’s streaming partner, and is expanding the partnership between NBCU and USL. I can’t wait to go to Coney Island to watch Brooklyn FC. From the studio to the booth, MLB Network’s “MLB Central” crew will be working together for the first time to broadcast the games. Robert Foles, Mark DeRosa and Lauren Shehadi will appear on the MLB.Net “Showcase” broadcast the week of the Phillies’ game against the Royals on Aug. 24. The broadcast will not be available in Philadelphia or Kansas City.
The brown-paneled office off the foyer of Steve Bornstein’s Beverly Hills home is decorated appropriately for the man who led ESPN’s meteoric growth for 10 years and reshaped the NFL’s media strategy for the next.
But that promotion was in jeopardy when he was promoted from chairman and CEO of ESPN to president of ABC-TV in 1999. Bornstein lasted only six months in the role before reluctantly agreeing to lead an ill-fated attempt to spin off all of the company’s Internet assets. It failed spectacularly, and he resigned in 2002, convinced he had been pushed out.
But in a twist worthy of Greek theater, Bornstein soon found himself face-to-face with his former employer. He signed on as a consultant to the NFL, hired to negotiate the “Sunday Ticket” renewal with DirecTV; the deal included an option to launch a league-owned network with guaranteed distribution. He later became the NFL’s vice president of media, tasked with leading the strategizing and negotiation of the most valuable television rights package in sports, due for renewal after the 2004 season. Once the deal was completed, Bornstein realised a then-staggering $4.4 billion package, extracted price increases of more than 20% from CBS and Fox, revived NBC after an eight-year hiatus, switched “Monday Night Football” from ABC to ESPN for double the fee, and dropped ABC altogether.
For this achievement, Bornstein has been selected as a 2024 Champions: Pioneers & Innovators, SBJ’s Bill King wrote in this week’s magazine. For more on Bornstein, check out this timeline and what others are saying about his career.
Matthew Morgan
Bob Baschet, the longtime sports agency and NBC Sports executive who famously coined and coined the term “Breakfast at Wimbledon,” recently passed away after a battle with throat cancer, SBJ’s Terry Lefton wrote in his obituary. In a 2009 SBJ op-ed celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Breakfast at Wimbledon,” Baschet wrote, “Six months before Wimbledon, our production team was holding a brainstorming production seminar about how to change our approach to a live audience and a 9 a.m. start at Wimbledon that was unheard of on the East Coast. With this early date in mind, I casually mentioned that ‘Breakfast at Wimbledon’ would be good. There was silence in the room as everyone digested this perfect promotional tag, and the rest is history.” ” The end of the Paris Olympics led to a drop in viewership for the first week of the NFL preseason, with NFL Network games down 14% from last year and 12% from two years ago (excluding all years’ HOF games), SBJ’s Austin Karp noted.
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