Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery cancels live sports streaming service Venu

disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery They have canceled plans to launch their own sports streaming service, Venu, the two companies said in a joint statement on Friday.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the live streaming service,” they said in the statement. “In an ever-changing market, we decided 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 at Venu to date and are grateful to the Venu employees who we will support during this transition period.”

It was Fino It was first announced in February It aims to combine the live sports assets of Fox, WBD and Disney-owned ESPN. It was initially scheduled to be released before the start of the NFL season in September, but it was Partially delayed By A Fubo legal challenge to Internet TV packages, Which claimed that the platform would be anti-competitive.

Together, Disney, Fox and WBD control more than 50% of all U.S. sports media rights, and at least 60% of all national U.S. sports broadcast rights, according to the judge in the antitrust case.

News that it would not launch came as a shock to Venu employees, who found out late Thursday night, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to discuss internal matters. They believed they had a way forward to launch the service after Disney Agreed earlier this week To integrate Hulu+ Live TV with FuboSettle all lawsuits regarding Fino.

But the judge’s response in Fubo’s lawsuit questioned the legality of cable bundling in general, prompting Disney to strike the deal with Fubo, through which Disney would control 70% of the resulting company. Two days earlier, satellite providers DirecTV and Dish sent letters to the federal court arguing that the judge’s legal questions remained unanswered.

Rather than risk an expansive lawsuit that could jeopardize aggregation overall — including Disney’s efforts to consolidate its streaming entities (ESPN, Hulu and Disney+) — the three companies decided to pull the plug on Venu, according to people familiar with the matter.

“DIRECTV remains a leader in sports and we look forward to working with our programming partners – including Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery – to compete on a level playing field to provide sports fans with more choice, control and value, all in one experience,” DirecTV said in a statement.

Warner Bros.’s business model is based on Discovery has been heavily involved in negotiating syndicated carriage agreements for several of its cable networks, including CNN, TNT, HGTV and Food Network.

Disney is targeting the debut of ESPN “Flagship,” an all-inclusive ESPN streaming service, in August 2025. The yet-to-be-named ESPN streaming service will include everything that airs on the linear ESPN network, as opposed to ESPN+.

Disney’s deal with Fubo, along with the company’s recent carriage revamp with DirecTV, also gives the company new ways to pack so-called skinny packages — narrower selections of channels for less money. That was the idea behind Venu: sell fewer linear channels for less money than traditional cable TV.

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast, which owns CNBC’s parent NBCUniversal, is a co-owner of Hulu.